Zootopia: Book of Prophecy
by AxeO'War
Summary: Angela Flufferson, a rookie archeologist working for Zootopia's Museum of Natural History has made a major breakthrough in her career. She has discovered an ancient prophecy pertaining the impending Armageddon, determined to make a name for herself, she set out to hunt down the artifacts and archives that can shed light on the subject while being hunted herself.
1. Chapter 1: Prophecy or mundane

Anybody here remember Mrs. Croft's early adventures? I sure do, and boy those were the days. From the very first cutscene where Lara single-handedly took down a pack of wolves to the battle with the T-Rex, traversing the Great Wall and eventually the The Last Revelation, Lara Croft is an idol of the Video Game Industry. So I decided to write a fanfic project to pay homages to the Tomb Raider series.

 **(Update: This story has also been updated with the inclusion of Squdge/Heisei Gojira Jr's characters and revamped plot points)**

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 **Zootopia: Book of Prophecy**

Chapter 1: Prophecy or mundane

Sitting in her work space, carefully deducing and examining ancient artifacts and its possible usages in the context of its creators' world, Angie toiled as hard as any self respecting peasant would to reach their intended goal, the enlightenment of endless knowledge. But how hard is it for a rookie archeologist to gain recognition from the curator of the museum, even though she has her university degrees and Mastership? Very hard. As it turns out, nothing goes according to plan.

For the past weeks, Angie had to help Logan resettle into the normal daily life of Zootopia. Just after his robotization, he had to move in with her to have her counselling and emotional as well as mental support. Logan continues his job as a police officer in the ZPD's precinct 1, his pension was raised to accommodate for the additional role being the technology test bed alongside Wolfard, whom he has been reassigned to, it was better than being a beggar on the streets, waiting for someone to feel generous.

She had been there for a full 2 hours, going over the various hieroglyphs and inscriptions made by scribes and priests of centuries past, she had read and learned many myths and legends in her classrooms and homework assignments before, but this one stuck out like a sore thumb. The female arctic wolf had managed to decipher their meaning and what insights they might have on an otherwise obscured ancient artifact that no one would want to find.

"The Kingdom is whole once again, rejuvenated by Horus and protected from harms as the foul creature of Apep is sealed away from the world of mortals. But no sooner had he been punished for his crimes, Apep made his threat knew and feared, he would return to the world and threaten it once again. Though our efforts have been commemorated by our lord and father Ra, we are warned that dark times will always come after the sun has risen to high noon, but this dark time is unlike anything we've seen in ages past. One that will be prolonged and perilous, our divinity in this dark age to come will be diminished to second rate, but our duties with the mortals meant that we must remain committed. To let Apep rule the world once and for all is a thought that cannot be entertained."

From what the Carbon dating technique can tell, the Papyrus paper that Angie was reading dates back to the New Kingdom era of the Ancient Ewegyptian, an era that was considered the golden age, when the ancient civilization of the east was at its peak before crumbling away as the Golden Age of its Northern Mediterranean neighbor's culture dawn, the Howllenic culture of the Lycan. From what the writing has to offer, it sounded like Angie had stumbled across an age old prophecy of impending doomsday, but instead of hysterically screaming at the top of her lungs about it, Angie took a calm and professional skeptic, academic approach at interpretation. "This must be a priest's interpretation of an impending end of the golden age of civilization. This mammal must have been a very visionary person in his age to wield such perception."

She commented with amazement and awe to the author. Just then, one of the museum staff, a stag came into Angie's quarter in the museum's forensic sector. "Angie, you're not gonna believe this, but the curator wants to meet you now." Angie's ears perked up in an instant, she has been waiting for this a long time, and now the curator wishes to meet her is just too good to be true. "Really? As in now? Well it's about time that he gives me permission to go on an expedition, I've been dying to get in the field." The stag stood there, keeping a dull face, refusing to agitate Angie further.

"Angie, this is not the age of curiosity and exploration anymore, in fact, we might have discovered all that is left of ancient civilizations and the Classical Antiquities world before you're even born." Disregarding the stag secretary, Angie stormed off to the curator's office on the other side of the museum with her expectations and hopes high.

"She shouldn't have been too high strung." The stag commented. When the female snow white lupine opened the door of the curator's office, and came in, she sat down in front of the purple hippo with her innocent puppy face trying to get approval. "Miss Flufferson, do you know how much have you been a pain in my neck these past weeks?" The hippo asked her with a levelled tone, the stag secretary was standing next to him, reminding Angie of her previous mishaps and overbearing demands to go out on the field.

"Well, I apologize for the inconveniences that I caused to you, but in my defense, I have been sitting in that forensic office for too long now. I need to go outside and do something for real instead of just reading Carbon dates and interpreting ancient manuscripts." She stood her ground and even though one might be encouraged to stand by her, but the dull and unimpressed faces of the curator and his stag said otherwise.

"And tell me why should we fund and support a single expedition headed by you? In my honest opinion, we have been dug up and studied every major civilizations in the world, over the past 50 years." Frustrated by their condescending and out-right lazy approach, Angie nearly threw a tantrum but restrained herself from doing so.

"So you're saying that we've seen enough of the world? That wasn't what we've been taught to think or perceive. There is more to be found than what has been discovered, if you're planning to turn this museum into a wedding buffet establishment, then fire me now." Impressed by her defense and steadfast nature, the curator double down on his complain and instead opted to appease to her more adventurous side.

"Ahem, if I may, I think someone who has such steadfast and determination like you deserved to go out in the field once in awhile. How about you take whatever breakthrough you may have in that store and do something with them in the field?" The lupine was excited by the offer, so she decided to prepare herself to convince her bosses.

"Well, I discovered a scripture from a Papyrus paper that pertain a prophecy of a doomsday scenario, written during the dawn of the New Kingdom era of the Ancient Ewegyptian." Not quite impressed yet, the hippo curator and his stag secretary retain their dull faces in response with the hippo being the first to break the silence.

"Go on?" He said.

"Well as I was saying, the scripture mentioned the eternal god of darkness and evil, Apep will rise again in the future and exact untold terror in the world. From what I've learned, this could just be the interpretation that whatever glory an era might have, it's just an immediate moment in time and that era will soon fade away into history. But it is still interesting nonetheless, mainly because it sounded more like an actual prophecy than s stylized warning. With the limited information I have in here, I can't make a difference, with your permission, I would like to head out to where the scripture was originally found and conduct my own research there."

Feeling a sense of delight tingling in him, the hippo curator was eager to provide Angie with support for the trip, "Well if you put it that way, very well then, I'm greenlighting you to conduct your expedition. But I tell you this, should you fail this, you're relegated to counting pots and statues at best and fired at worst. You got that." Angie nodded in compliance with the dare, she was then given the exact location of the scripture's discovery, in the Tomb of Pharaoh Thescalineces on the outskirt of Lycopolis.

Angie excitedly ran off to gather her personal belongings and crew for the trip, it was a win-win. The curator was spared of her numerous and frankly, insurmountable list of demands, at least until she comes back. Angie quickly gathered up a small crew for her expedition, among them was her boyfriend, Logan, who will follow her to act as security detail. She immediately went back to her quarter and pick up her cell phone to dial Logan almost instantly, she sat down with her phone still on her ears, waiting for the dial to complete.

Logan in the meantime was working in the precinct doing his usual duties as an officer of the law, but compared to the others just a rookie. Although on work hours he was just as professional as before despite the massive fork in the road he experienced being assimilated into a robot.

Currently though he was in a firing rage with a desert eagle Canyon, a coyote he had made acquaintances with, had lend to him to practice a stepping ladder to get a more steady grip on more powerful firearms. The firing range itself was a rectangular room with stalls in a shiny grey color, while the surrounding room was more grey. Logan in his liquid metal still aimed down the sight of his pistol hitting board targets.

He then heard the chiming sound of a telephone in his ear. He pressed his left index finger on his left ear and answered the call. "Angie? Hey babe. What's up?" Logan asked while his tail wagged slightly.

He suddenly heard the voice of Angie squealing like a giddy school girl upon getting what she wants. "Logan, you're not going to believe it but I got a field trip now! The curator finally caved in and let me go on a field trip to Ewegypt!" She exclaimed jubilantly to him, ecstatic by the incredible development that has occurred to her career. On her desk there was a map of Ewegypt with the Nile crossing down in the middle of the mostly desert country. She put a red pin on a city of Lycopolis with a photo of the front side of the tomb on it, in the photo, there was a small entrance into what was best described as a covert Mastaba built into the mountainside with a pair of statues of Anubis, the God of the Dead. "Also I was thinking maybe you can come along with me to help out, I'm not pushing you but having you along is a lot more fun." She added a twist that would sound surprising to Logan as the sudden development caught him off guard.

Logan made a quick stutter, and accidentally pulled the trigger of the desert eagle causing a bullet to ricochet off of the floors and walls several times. On the phone angie heard confused and startled officers as well as logan yelling. Thankfully no one was injured, and Logan got up unscathed. "Uhhh. Sorry everyone!" he cleared his throat going back to the conversation. "Uhhh that was probably nothing Angie. I don't know though. Ewegypt is so far away. Although, I haven't exactly been using those vacation hours either, and some of my higher ups are going to force me to take a vacation…"

Angie scratched her head thinking about what he told her, finding it a rather fitting time indeed for them to be going abroad and nodded as she gather notes and papers regarding the trip into her backpack. "Well since sooner or later you'll have to go on forced vacation, how about taking a voluntary one sooner?" She asked him with a smile as she was picking up the backpack in one hand and a map topographical map in another, the map was clipped into her journal to prevent losing it. "I'll pick you up after work or you'll pick me up after mine?" She asked him curiously as she put the backpack down on a chair next to her desk before continuing her work documenting some of the recovered artifacts like urns, a broken sword and a wicker bed with gold plated legs.

Logan blushed however, and scratched the back of his head. "I actually have been using Canyon to pick and drop me off so far. I can't afford my own car yet so it's either been a redneck, Wolfard, or Colditz to give me a ride. This is embarrassing…" He shrugged to himself while making a nervous chuckle. He cleared his throat however. "Putting you in the bed of Betsy is out of the question though. That's for sure."

She shuddered whenever she heard about the Rednecks truck, Betsy, and how Logan or Charlie travel about inside of the vehicle to and from various locations and destinations in general. "Probably not Betsy, that's out of the question, let's call the cab instead since it's more affordable than having to pay hospital bills thanks to Betsy." She commented to him while looking over a sarcophagus of the Pharaoh of Ewegypt, this one was a standard run of the mill Pharaoh with golden mask and with a tassel and hook on each hands. "Anyway, how's Wolfard, your new partner?"

Logan in the meantime got to his own suitcase and pack pack. The suitcase he had was made of hard jet black plastic, and where he kept two of his pistols. One being the desert eagle and another being a 9mm black pistol. He got his backpack on, and held the suitcase in his left hand while he made his way out of the precinct. "Well as many problems Colditz had i could respect him. I mean he does protect me like im his family or something, but Wolfard he's doing alright. He likes the robot body more than I do, and being my superior. At least he respects me enough to know I'm a grown man." Logan stated as he checked out for the night. Although in his head he needed to schedule that he was in fact going to take faction hours. It's his first time doing so, and a move that would get the entire precinct to make a unanimous gasp knowing how much he worked.

"Well sounds like you have a good partner to help you around the precinct and accompany your job. Anyway I'll see you after work and we'll plan our trip okay?" She waited for his answer attentively, knowing full well that he was going to give her a definite yes to the simple request.

"Yeah sure. I just uh have to get into my database, and schedule myself. Yeah though I'm definitely going on this one. I'll see you in a bit." Logan made his way into the computer room of the precinct. He sat down on one of the terminals and logged himself into the ZPD website using his own email. On the screen he made his way around absences, of which was blank, and then vacation time. He clicked the activate button, albeit a little slow and reluctant, which caused him to cringe a little, but once the task had been done he was no longer on the ZPD's payroll for the duration of the vacation. Although this would have gone to anyone who knew him in the precinct. He sighed. "Oh boy… I don't think one person is going to take this easily." He said to himself, but the sudden vacation would be a put off to anyone who worked in the precinct.

Sure enough, not long after he made the necessary paperworks, Wolfard came into the room to meet him almost instantly. Logan's robot partner was much more liberal in his dress code especially for his robot form as the robot timber wolf, wasn't in any disguises or conventional clothing whatsoever since that will only get in his way. "Hey Logan, I picked up data on the network that you're taking a vacation right?" He asked his partner, looking Logan directly in the face but not in a threatening manner, but a more professional one.

Logan stood up straight and nodded to the superior officer. "Yeah what a shock on my part. Pretty sure everyone else is freaking their tails off shouting 'Oh my god! He's finally taking a break' and then throwing a party behind my back." Logan chuckled to his own joke, but sighed knowing he really doesn't take off. All he knew is that this might be a chance to spend time and bond with Angie. It seemed the two of them were very apparent due to work.

The next thing Logan received from Wolfard however was hug, a sudden act of affection that caught Logan completely off guard as the robot wolf hugged his crimson red counterpart in, feeling the liquid metal layer of disguise on top of his frame. While then Logan can feel the harden metal plates of Wolfard against his body's layer of versatile disguise. "Take your time Logan, there's plenty of other guys desperate to work your job." He chuckled to Logan.

Logan in confusion made a groan. He gulped in his confusion and made a mental shrug to himself as his arms were now being used to hug Wolfard back. He patted his superior officer's back a couple of times. "Well this is a nice change i guess. I didn't know I was going to be missed so much. Thanks boss." Logan sighed realizing perhaps he was well respected among his peers. He was more casual around Wolfard as he saw eye to eye with him more as they were alike in many ways. "You can, uh, let go now sir. Angie is waiting for me probably. No offence. Sir." logan cleared his throat.

"None taken." Wolfard replies, finally letting go of Logan and look at him in the eyes longingly. It was quite strange for both of them but it didn't last long enough to be noticeable as Wolfard patted Logan's shoulder to show him way out of the precinct, as they were passing by the rooms, they were greeted with the sight of fellow ZPD officers gasping and dropping their jaws as they were seeing the unbelievable happening before their eyes, Logan was taking a vacation instead of working all the time. Fangmeyer slapped herself across the face to see if she was having a mirage but much to the tigress's surprise, it was real. "You guys better start celebrating right now. But it wasn't my effort that got him to do it." Wolfard instructed them, and they likewise cheered at sudden change in Logan's schedule and went to prepare some office celebration for the vacation he was taking.

Outside of the precinct, Logan would see that Angie was waiting for him with a Giraffe cab standing by to pick him up. She waved at him and called to him with one hand over her mouth. "Hey Logan, I got our ride here!" She howled at him.

Logan hearing the howl looked into her direction, of course being a wolf himself couldn't resist the urge to howl over at her himself filling the streets around them with the sounds of their own voices and breaking the silence. This earned him some questionable looks from other citizens, but he chuckled as he made his way to Angie. "H-Hey! You know your have to be more careful with that. Especially around me dear." he made a slightly nervous chuckle to his. He looked over to the cab, and made a sigh in relief that for once it wouldn't be a pickup bed.

Angie kissed his cheek lightly before hopping into the cab with him, she was holding his hand and help him with his luggage. "You know I can't resist but doing that sometimes. Anyway I found that we'll be going to a city named Lycopolis, city of wolves. I we'll be touching down at the city's airport and staying in a hotel room for the economy class." She opens a travel guide book to Logan and show him the sites of the city where they will be staying, the hotel itself looks like a decent 3 stars and a half hotel with a scenic view around the city. It also has the added benefit of sitting near an ancient temple of Anubis that has been thoroughly excavated in the past years with many artifacts found. Mostly statues and books regarding funeral rites.

Logan wagged his tail excited seeing all of the places they'd be going to see together. "Wow! And to think I've been holding off on a vacation for a while now. That's a lot of sightseeing with you." he said as he held her hand. He made a slight chuckle however. "Hey you think you could find a tomb raid in the Baaaahamas?"

Angie chuckled at his question and giggled before joining in for a joke or two with him. "Yeah maybe we'll find the tomb of the first tour guide there." She chuckled a bit before showing him a photo of an old goat professor. "This is my mentor, Martin Hornskilt. He teaches at the Zootopia University of History and Archaeology. Paleontologist, PhD. The curator said he's heading the excavation of the tomb we'll be going to on the outskirt of the city, good to see some friendly faces." The photo Logan was shown was an old goat with a meek expression, he was wearing spectacles with a red bow tie on his collar. The goat professor was wearing a gray T-Shirt with brown pullers.

Logan chuckled seeing the image. "Well. There's a face that's easy to spot in the crowd." he smiled back to Angie however while he relaxed himself in the comfy soft seat of the cab. "I'm sure it will be an honor for me to meet him. The closest I've had to a professor was my trainer during police exercises." Logan then realized he was going to to soon meet a very dignified and professional figure, and an individual who is very influential in Angie's life. "He's easy to talk to right?"

Angie nodded to Logan as she then proceeds to flip some pages of her journal and show him some photos taken of the tomb that Martin has been working on, the tomb itself was a mastaba built into the side of a rocky mountain with an entrance carved into the rock formation with a pair of Anubian statues standing guard outside. "Yeah he is. He told me in a letter that while working on the tomb he found that the statues standing guard outside was very strange looking. The armor design itself looks to be very Azurian like and has an almost sci-fi like feel." The statues Logan saw has angular designs for the armor with each of them looking like a face helm with supposedly pulsating aura on the armor. The arm pads along with their leg counterparts seem to be rather bulky in appearance sporting a space age like design.

Logan huffed seeing the odd design of the statues. In his mind he used stereotypes to identify what ancient Ewegypt looked like, the designs of various beings used back then. To him this already looked odd to him. In his memory Ewegypt was more sleek and smooth with their designs such as the statues used, and the sarcophaguses where they put bodies in. This didn't add up to his memories. "Yeah. That's weird. I thought Ewegypt was more curvy with statutes and stuff. They look like a sci-fi movie space trooper fo real." Logan said.

Angie nodded and stroke her chin as the taxi cab came to a stop at their home in the suburban area of Savannah Central. "Tell me about it, usually the common statues are much more stylize and not to mention have some curves to both male and female figures. Even the likes of low level citizens were given the same treatment. But this design seems to suggest some other style of craftsman foreign to Ewegypt were working there." She exited the cab with Logan and proceeds to walk inside their home after paying the fee.

"Martin said that the Tomb was built around 4000 years ago, during the New Kingdom period, no way can it be constructed by foreigners, not since the nomadic Hyksos were driven out of the Kingdom." She explained as she opened up a map of the Ancient Ewgyptian Kingdom to Logan, he saw the map of Ewegypt during the Golden Age when the kingdom was at its greatest extend from the Nile towards what is now Palestine. The reach of the Ewegyptian back then would no doubt stunned Logan when he saw the map.

Logan whistled while his eye scanned the massive kingdom's stretch. He may have been no expert in the archeology field, but this was already something for him to be impressed by. His eyes followed the Nile south were the kingdom stretched. It perplexed him how communication back then must have worked as well as law enforcement to keep the place in order. Although the words and names that Angie used were confusing him. "Okay so the Hyksos were the bad guys soooo…. They needed to be driven out which caused a better time for Ewegypt which is good." Logan though scrunched his eyebrows together, and looked at Angie confused. "So wait. When, and in what order did this stuff happen? I kinda don't know the history of this place. Just shocked they keeped it all in order if reaching law enforcement was a hard thing to do." he said admitting a bit of a dense side.

Angie seeing his dense side decided to draw up a line on a piece of paper then the divided that line into 4 sections with some minor spaces in between to represent transition periods between the eras. Then she proceeds to label them one by one before giving it to Logan. "Okay so the first is the Old Kingdom, then there's the Middle Kingdom after it, then the Middle Kingdom, the third is the New Kingdom and finally the Howllenic period when Growleeks were ruling the place." She summarized, then she showed him a depiction of a magnificent palace of the Pharaoh in the New Kingdom period in the capital city of Thebes. A palace built from limestones and marble stones on top of a hill overlooking the Nile and the lush green river banks.

Logan still confused made a nod to make him seem he knew the subject well. Although, with the timeline completed it helped in the most marginal of ways. "Ohhh. So you have multiple factions with their own style, and ways of ruling over the years." he cleared his throat still very new to the subjects being taught to him. "You're really going to have to teach me how each different faction varied from the last." He then looked around nervously realizing he might be up the entire night listen to a lecture on the subject. "Uh. Later though. Maybe teach me on ancient law enforcement, but do you need help packing up some things?" Logan asked trying to be polite.

Angie nodded and smile lightly at him as she began to pack her spare clothes first and foremost like all travelers do. "Sure let's pack some spare clothes and travel guides first. That's easiest to remember. But if you like to know, they used to have city guards to patrol around town and keep order and priests to be lawyers and royal family members as judges for the court." She explained briefly as she began to pack her suitcase with a collection of of her spare clothes, most were light wear for desert travel as by day, dark colored clothes can attract more heat and by night the place is extremely cold.

Logan began to pack some of his own items. Since he moved in with Angie he had put some of his own items in her house including his cologne collection. It never occurred to him he may too much of the stuff at some points, but again he did wear it to smell at least more presentable. He then packed in shampoos made for cars, polishing compound, and car wax knowing he was a robot now regular shampoo wasn't going to help much to keep him clean. The one thing of normality he did being along however was a bar of soap. As for clothes he felt more comfortable in real clothing rather than the liquid metal he uses since he felt more concealed, and more private. With the metal itself he felt naked, and exposed. The clothes he brought along were t-shirts he folded until completely flattened without a trace of an out of place wrinkle or crease. He also brought some mid sized jeans with highlight on the fronts and backs lighter than the either black or white cloth depending on the pair. This he folded neatly and organized along with a pair of shoes, socks, and baggy boxers. He then looked over at Angie and smiled. "Alright that should be everything. I can't thank you enough for letting me stay here with you." He smiled and kissed her on the side of her cheek, but already she could smell the cologne he was wearing.

She smiled back at him and kissed his lips passionately as she smelled the cologne he was wearing. It felt nice to have him by her side, no matter what, even when he was a robot, he is still her boyfriend regardless and she loves him more than anything in the world. Angie wrapped her arms around his waists and pull him in closer so she can feel his body on her. "You know we haven't had our...alone time together." She cooed into his metal ears and licked his snout slowly. "Care to join me for that?" She seduced him slowly with her hands running down his abdomen to where his abs were and pressed her palms into it.

Logan grunted out in surprise as she did this to him. His eye got big, but being a man on a time frame he looked at the clock to see if they had time to "mess around". And thankfully for them the had several hours before they were needed. He then looked back down at Angie's eye with a sly grin that told his motives. "Well Al did fix me kinda. Yeah sure we have time. I never had time to try out my 'augments' yet. If i have a vibrate setting i'll let you know." he made a sly chuckle.

Angie likewise made a sly grin as she pushed him onto her bed and began to unbutton her pants and undo her panties. She teases his LED optics with her vulva being exposed and then she proceeds to throw her shirt and show off her jet black bras which were obviously made from synthetic materials and grinned at Logan's face. "I hope you do...now let's get this show on the road then." She kisses his lips passionately, waiting for him to make his move with her.

Logan now blushing hard looked down at his own pants, and laughed filled with excitement. "Alrighty then!" he shouted. It didn't take long however for him to unbutton his own pants, and then unzip them. He then grabbed the inside of his boxers, and pants and made a swift move of pulling them down to his ankles. His liquid metal disguise soon faded off showing the what Alfred said about the emotional levels causing the disguise to fade away were in fact true.

Logan's penis however was still limp for now, and he kept his shirt on, but seeing Angie without her own clothes on turned him on. His black rubber like penis soon got out of its limp state, and filled with nanites rather than blood, and rose upwards slowly, and with an anticipating throbbing as it bobbed up and down. Logan panted feeling himself get a bit more warm, and his heart rate increase as he watched his genitals grow. He looked back up at Angie with an anticipating grin. "Alright give it to me good…" he seemed to beg.

Angie likewise grinned and marvels at the sight of his penis being readied for her. She then lowered herself down on top of it and began to take it all inside her vulva with her vaginal wall clamp down on it quite fast. She felt its intrusion to be hard and quite frankly incredibly hard to put to words as she felt the penis's latex layer rubbed itself against her flesh. "Ooh! God! It's so...TIGHT in there!" She moaned out, blushing brightly red as she began to go up and down to take the penis in deeper.

For a quick moment Logn went cross eyed for feeling the sudden pleasure on him. He shook his head out though and panted faster as she rode him. "Was not expecting this tonight! Take that Colditz! Tell me I wear too much cologne next tim- OH GOD YES!" Logan's head arched backwards, and he laughed in extreme pleasure. One that was arguably better than the one he experienced while being assimilated. He breathed heavily sucking in and breathing air out of his lungs in an intense pant. His hand grabbed onto Angie's butt, and he helped force her down on top of himself driving his cock into her warm body. "Okay. I thought the first time we do this would be more foreplay, but this works to!" he said between his breaths quickly.

"Hehe-Oh well...it's effective as well...SEEING...we'll be...doing it...anyway...one way or another." Angie replied as she continues to bob up and down on top of him by now her bras have fallen off, revealing her twins to his LED optics to enjoy. His HUD began to display meticulously researched Data of her body as his erection was gathering precious info on her fertility and his LED eyes's laser scanner showed that her nipples were getting hardened and ready for him to taste and enjoy the milky stream of her body. "PENETRATION IMMINENT!" Said a warning box on his HUD. "PROPAGATION POSSIBILITY 56%. WILL YOU PROCEED WITH MATING CONDUCT?" Said the next pop up box on his HUD.

"Pr- oh yes propa-what now? Propagation? The h- oh baby slam me!. Whatever it is yes!" He exclaimed. He watched her breasts jiggle in front of his eyes enjoying their sight like a hypnotic trial. He continued his panting, and brought his head closer to them while he squeezed her firm rump in his hands. "Mating conduct will be proceeded baby!" Logan's synthetic tongue fell out of his mouth coated in saliva. He brought his tongue to her right side nipple and swirled his tongue around the base of the nipple coating it in saliva. As the session continue his dick throbbed harder and some pre cum leaked out of him proving them male reproductive system was not as well oiled as many think.

Angie gasped and humped further, trying her best to pushed his penis through her cervix area, she held her breath and began to make one last hard push, making his penis throbbed harder, expand itself to full length as her cervix was being probed by its latex covered tip. Eventually, her cervix was penetrated with his penis now sitting inside her womb and its tip has been properly serviced. "PENETRATION COMPLETED. COMMENCING NANITES DEPOSITORY AND PROPAGATION." Said a pop up box on Logan's HUD as his synthetic brain was being bombarded by the enormous amount of pleasure from the session. Angie howled in excitement of being claimed by him with her head pointed at the ceiling.

Logan once again hearing another wolf howl did one so himself, but this time it was during possibly his most intimate moment, and with his lover. He made a passion filled howl to Angie's own while head arched up to the ceiling. He squeezed her firm rump again and slammed her down on top of his hard throbbing cock before the pleasure intensified to the point in the signals for his testicals to release their seed was sent in a pleasure filled tingling signal. He ejacuated in a very dramtic way where he felt his legs twitch and shake intensely as they got close to each other. His eyelids twitched rapidly while his eyeballs rolled to the back of his head all while he still felt his taint tingle full of pleasure sending nanite though his urethra.

Angie yelped and whimpered in joy as she felt her womb bask in the warmth of his Nanites, they began to converge into her egg chamber and bond themselves into her unfertilized eggs, a pop up box showed up on Logan's HUD saying "SUBJECT FERTILITY: EXCEPTIONAL. MATING SUCCESS, NANITES BONDING IN PROGRESS." Logan could see that Angie's womb was filled with Nanites and they were bonding with her eggs waiting for the command from him to take her and robotize her as well.

Logan groaned and saw the check box. He yelped startled and immediately denied that option to the nanites which caused him to pant for a different reason not wanting to be the father to cyborg kids, or accidentally assimilating his girlfriend on their first sex night. He thought to himself however "Okay next time robot condoms. Or use the liquid metal as one…" However after declining he laid his head on the pillow behind him, and brought Angie in to his chest while hugging her still. He however forgot to exit her body now feeling exhausted. "I can't feel my legs and I don't care…." Logan then gulped out of breath.

Angie was now exhausted by how fast he managed to take her, she opted to simply lay on his chest with him still inside her and sleep the night away while Logan continues to leak his Nanites into her, not knowing what could they do to her body let alone the fact that he could potentially robotize her, but it matters not to her right now, she was having fun with him as lovers would inevitably do to one another.


	2. Chapter 2: Tomb of Thescalineces

First off, I want to thank joshlasher180 for being the first to hit the favorite and subscribe button for this story. Thanks a lot pal, I'll be sure to give this story the adventure it deserved. Also I want to thank everyone for their support and contribution to keep me going on Fanfic, I know I don't do these announcements and thank you a lot and this looks like a cheap scam to get your likes and reviews, but in all honesty, you guys are the inspiration to keep me going. Enjoy!

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Chapter 2: Tomb of Thescalineces

Under the scorching sun of the Ewegyptian desert, Angie and Logan were on a bus from Lycopolis to the Tomb of Thescalineces. Travelling by road was practically the best mode of transport for them at the moment. It was a quiet, dull, emotionless sight for commoners, no exciting activities, no lush green other than those of occasional palm trees and bushes of the farmsteads.

But the change of air was rather welcoming for Logan, considering he had to spend most of his time indoors, counting the stock's supply of furniture and inspect each one of them for faults and defects. Personally, Logan simply cannot wait to run wild in the outdoor environment and see the sunlight with his own eyes.

Angie was sitting next to him, her attention was fixed firmly on the documents her museum curator provided just for the occasion. From what the files and the logs had to offer, the dig site and its crew were being led by her old mentor, a certain ram named Professor Martin T. Hornskilt, who majored in Paleontology and archeology.

To think that she was about to meet her old mentor again is thrilling in itself, but to work with him on a professional ground is even better. She anxiously waited for the bus to stop by the dig site and let the two off. Eventually, the bus came to a stop and the two wolves were dropped off at the dig site, there they find the front entrance of the tomb half buried by the sand.

Around the entrance was the camp of Professor Hornskilt, tents were raised around two weeks ago and the workers were local inhabitants, cheap labors but hard working and honest mammals nonetheless.

Logan seemingly relieved for some odd reason in recent days was more than happy to enter the camp site, and follow along with whatever Angie needed. "Nice camp. Guys really know how to set something up." He was walking standing straight up much as he would do in the precinct to give off a more professional appearance. He had a big smile on his face though which was a relief to Angie since it's been awhile since he's been at a real sense of peace.

Angie came up to an elephant foreman, who was directing his co-workers efforts to preserve and dig through the tomb, "Excuse me sir, but I'm looking for a ram named Dr. Hornskilt. Do you know where I can find him?" The elephant turned to Angie, surprisingly for both her and Logan, his trunk was still able to co-ordinate the workers with little input from the mammal's awareness.

"Dr. Hornskilt? Oh yes, you should be able to find him in the red tent by the entrance."

"Thank you." Angie politely said. Following the instruction of the gentle foreman, Angie and Logan went to the red tent along a row of tents by the left hand side of the entrance. As they approach the tent, they can hear the sound of paper rustling in the wind, and the snoring of Professor Martin.

Logan's ears twitched hearing the professor snore. He scanned his eyes around the tent, but his hud once again had to label everything he saw even though he already knew what he was looking at. Slightly annoyed by this Logan waved his hand infront of his face to get the words away. He sighed though after he saw Martin."Oh god Angie. I don't think he's going to take the whole 'Me being a robot wolf' so well." Logan tried to maintain his re found happiness again "Well i guess we just talk to him. Uh. Just tell me first if his heart is good for surprises." Logan commented.

"Calm down Logan, you don't need to tell him that you're a robot. Just don't raise a word about it and you'll be fine." She insisted to him as they made their way towards his tent before finally coming up on its doorstep where the snoring was louder.

Logan followed her to the entrance, and now his hud was showing red colored sound bars that raised and lowered on the left side of his HUD which took up about a quarter of his vision. This was much to Logan's annoyance as each time Martin snored the bars would go up and down. "Thank you robot hud. If it wasn't for you might have never figured he was snoring." Logan of course ignored the other bits of sound data such as decibels and distance from him as he canceled that part of the HUD. "Come let's go in. Let's hope I can make a good first impression."

"Yeah I hope so too now let's go in." She then proceeds to enter the tent with Logan and the first thing she saw was the sight of Martin Hornskilt sleeping on his desk with his face slumped down and his chin was on the desk, whenever he snores, the pages of his journal flutters in the wind generated from his mouth. It was almost like a cartoon to both of them.

Logan almost had a flashback to his own ways of sleep. The few times he does sleep it normally very hard, and very difficult to wake him up. Logan seeing another individual sleep like him made him realize just how much he worked himself. He did stay quiet however while he watched him sleep.

Angie had known from the university days, how Martin usually takes naps after hard days of work. She gestured a quiet blow to Logan and he nodded, probably aware of a little harmless prank they were about to pull on the old ram. The two of them gently sneaked into the tent, finding the old ram laying his head on the table, his hooves splayed out on the edge.

His body heaved up and down, back and forth with every snooze he took. Angie position herself on his left and Logan on his right, the arctic wolf whispered softly in his ear, a caring and melodic voice. "Yooouuu sleep well for a grave robbing mortal." She winked and hand signaled Logan to join in on his side as Martin rumbled and muttered nonsensically in his sleep.

"Hoooowww dare you defile the resting place of the divine ones?" Logan's more howling and stiff voice manifested itself as thunderous cracks in Martin's dream and the goat screamed out in panic. "What in the name of Herds and Grazing?" The old ram found himself being the victim of his old student's prank and was certainly slightly amused by how she was still just a young girl after all these years. "Angela? Is that you? My goodness, you've grown! I haven't seen you since graduation, how have you been?" He shook her paw and her return his kindness to hers.

"Doing well professor. This is my boyfriend, Logan, he's with me to provide some helps." The goat was mightily impressed by Angie's boyfriend, god honest expression and determined face. He shook his paw like a father meeting his soon to be son-in-law.

Logan cleared his throat out while shaking the professor's hand. He tried to keep his back as straight as possible. "Yeah. nice to meet you sir. Angie has been telling me a lot about you." Logan then let go of Martin's hand and made a nod to him.

He offered them a bottle of fine Bordeaux, just in case if the desert was getting to them. "Some fine wine, you two?" He asked, holding the bottle in his hooves. "And nice to meet you too Logan, I hope that you and Angie have enough time spent with each other to marry. By the way, if she rejects your basket then you're doom." He chuckled as he pour the first glass of wine.

Logan gulped to the idea of a wedding, and grew further nervous knowing what he did with Angie recently. He didn't understand the basket joke, and he didn't really notice him pouring the wines as he seemed to go into a silent nervous trance.

Angie chuckled at the joke before explaining it to Logan who was confused to the point he felt like he was on another planet. "He's referring to an Ewegyptian marriage where a boy must gather a basket full of gifts for a girl. And if the girl turns down the basket then he is doomed without love from her for good." She giggled a bit more before replying to Martin about the alcohol.

"Oh no thank you sir. Logan and I don't mix well with wines and alcohol." She politely turned down the offer and Martin did not see any ill will from the two. "So you've finally been assigned for field works? I'm proud of you Angela. How long did it take you to get here? A month? Two?"; "Two months sir. The museum curator sent me here to help you with your excavation of the Pharaoh's tomb."

"Finally, somebody here to help me out. Alright then here's the situation, about two weeks ago, I stumbled across a previously undiscovered section of the tomb, quite out of place in comparison to the layout designs of previous tombs." Martin then grabbed a map, which he drew during his initial discovery, he laid it on the table for Angie and Logan to see for more details.

Logan looked at the map layout and scanned it carefully. Of course his robotic brain did an actual scan much to his dismay and annoyance as he shook his head out again to get the images out of his head again. He huffed while trying desperately to figure out what the map meant. "So what are all these different rooms for? If it's a place where you bury a very important guy why are there so many other rooms?" Logan asked curious.

"Usually a tomb would consist of a corridor, an antechamber as a hub, from which all other chambers can be accessed, a burial chamber and finally a treasury. The secret compartment was found connected to the antechamber. Inside the chamber, we found a large collection of ancient books and manuscripts." Said Martin as his hoof guide Logan's attention around the map from one room to another, it would help Logan's comprehension somewhat as he began to understand the map layout much more with the specific chambers and how important the Pharaoh's position was in his days. "After all you're not talking about burying one guy, you're burying him along with his personal properties, money and staffs for the Afterlife." He summarized it for Logan to understand.

Logan kept what he learned in his memory while he nodded to the professor. While learning e was shocked to hear just how odd the ancients were. "Pharaohs must of had a really good life insurance then if the entire kingdom built them a tomb for literally everything they owned. Makes a coffin look like a cardboard box." Logan laughed a little finding a bit of dark humor to work with.

Much to his surprise however, the others laugh along with him with Martin and Angie tilting their heads back laughing out loud. "Correction, a cardboard box made out of gold. With a golden mask. You two have fun in there okay? But don't join the Dead club yet." Martin chuckles a bit more as he enjoys the Bordeaux wine while Angie and Logan proceeds into the tomb.

After examining the map layout, Angie and Logan head out into the tomb, they first passed through a long corridor, the stairs sent them downward, deeper and deeper into the sanctum of the ancients. Once the two had arrived at the antechamber, Angie and Logan entered the mysterious compartment, almost a chamber itself, about 319 square feet in size.

Logan seeing the chamber's size whistled impressed. He hadn't seen the contents yet, but just the size the ancients could produce with back shattering labour impressed him. "This place is huge! And its under the damn ground!" Logan exclaimed. He cupped his hands over his mouth and called through them. "HELLO!" as he shouted he heard a quick echo of his own voice go back to him. "Well it's not cursed I think. Otherwise the voice that would have come back wouldn't be mine, and it sure wouldn't have been a hello."

Angie was holding a chemlight in her hand as she was entering the chamber, she held it up and the light of it began to render Logan's optics to switch to Night Vision mode to better suit the condition as his optics adjust themselves and they found a massive armory full of weapons . She dropped her jaws upon seeing it as she walked around getting a full view of its content.

The contents it contained were astounding to Logan, there was no gold to be found, of course, but there were scrolls, manuscripts, codex for practices of war. Weapons were also there, from compound bows and arrows, to melee weapons such as swords and battle axes. It was an arsenal. "Incredible, I've never seen an entire arsenal squeezed into a tomb before." Angie's astonishment sounded off.

As he looked at the weapons he tried to get used to the night vison that was now bombarding his eyes. Something didn't seem right however here. "Is this normal practice for the Pharaohs? I mean. Look. The professor said that pharaohs take what they can bring into the afterlife. So unless the afterlife is a road filled with demons I think something is off here hun... This is not normal is it?" He asked, examining the state and condition of a compound bow and its arrow. To his amazement, they were still in perfect working conditions.

"No, not at all. In fact, the Pharaohs have no need for fielding his personal army in the afterlife. If he passed through the Judgement of the Soul, he would be protected in the afterlife by various gods and goddesses." Angie's explanation got Logan's suspicion rising, he knew that whoever came down here and inspect these weapons wasn't the one of the worker, for they wouldn't have the basic knowledge on how to properly maintain these weapons and there was no need to stash them here.

"Okay so the souls are protected on the stairway to heaven. Got it. But I'm not a melee weapon expert, but the fact is these things are too good in shape to be sitting here for some thousands of years. Oh. And the workers wouldn't of put them here. Not unless tradition was that upon dying you became a demon slaying badass." Logan stated not touching the weapons. He knew as a police officer not to touch evidence,or clues, but here he refused to touch any of this for a different reason. Mainly to keep everything in place as it was. Although one of the spears shined in a way that caught his eye.

Angie was examining the hieroglyphs on the wall, the writing style was of royalties for the curves and writing patterns are consistent with that of the hieratic style, used for official scrolls and other documents of importance. "It says here, 'When the day of Judgement come, all must rise and serve the cause. Therefore, to be prepared for the inevitable, is the first step to deal a quick and decisive blow against the eternal enemy.' Hmm. This sounds like someone was using the Pharaoh's tomb as a secret supply depot, in preparation for war. But with whom?" She pondered, Pharaoh Thescalineces wasn't a great and almighty, powerful Pharaoh in his days like Rameses II or Seti I, he was simply a plain, normal king. Which would explain why his tomb was of smaller scale than others. Just then, Logan was toying around with one of the spear when he suddenly, by accident, stepped on a secret floor tile that revealed a secret passage into the underground.

Logan made a surprised eep being surprised by the noise the passage made. He raised his hands in a defencive manner while dropping the spear "I didn't do anything I swear! I was just uhhhh… Looking at a spear. By touching it." Said Logan in an innocent manner as he tried to defend himself in this situation. But Angie was very curious by the underground passage, she immediately grabbed a flashlight, some tool-kit and flares find out for herself, where could this lead to.

"Come on Logan, I think we've just found something else. This might lead us to where the owner of the supply depot convenes." She excitedly hustled Logan down with her, the duo went down into the dark unknown, with flashlights in hand to guide the way and chem-lights on their belts to keep them within visual range.

Logan's night vision soon to trigger on. His vision turned green with various black and white glows around the cavern. Frustrated he tapped his right temple, but this turned the night vision blue. More frustrated he growled. "C'mon with this…" He muttered he tapped again which made a red colored variant. His expression went blank followed by an eye twitch showing his less than amused state of mind. Tapping again only brought him to a thermal imagery which made the world around him turn into a dark blue where it was cool, but looked at Angie and she glew a hue ranging from orange red and yellow depending where he looked.

"Got a problem with your night vision?" She asked naively, not aware of what was the technical difficulty Logan was facing as she was rather busied with keeping an eye out at the forward area with her chemlight being the only tool she has to penetrate the veil of darkness before her.

Logan grumble again this time seeing a vision that measures electromagnetic signals, and electricity all of which was highlighted by a cyan color. "Damn advanced recon thing is bothering me." Logan sighed begging for the normal life again, but with Angie he felt some acceptance even if he didn't accept himself.

Angie sighed out at this as she slowed down her pacing to let Logan have time adjusting to the sensors and surveillance suite he has onboard. "Guess Alfred and Charlie should have come up with a manual instruction for you."

The cavern they were exploring was filled with a dark void, like a curtain that only reveals itself within an immediate range, before quickly folds back in place.

Soon, the two came up to a hallway made of stones and decorated with familiar hieroglyphs and motifs, Angie took no time at all to start deciphering and learning the writing on the walls, "This here said that we are in some sort of a chasm. No, wait, my bad. This writing here says that we are in a Vault. Designed to protect some sort of book of great importance. I wonder what does this book concern?"

Logan in thought tried to think of what the book might entail, but found himself thinking back to adventure movies. Ones that had the protagonist collecting treasure followed by them running from some kind of defence mechanism a temple, or ancient structure had made."Wait, does that mean we'll come across some booby traps along the way?" Logan asked, he almost sounded like a child when raising his question.

"Oh Logan, that's just in the movie. Beside, any real booby traps would have been so worn off that they mostly become non-functional by this point in time." She gave him her utmost assurance before finally urging him forward. The two eventually came across a pedestal in a brightly lit room, the gold on the wall was meant to reflect the fire on the torches and brighten up the room to make the book on the pedestal readable.

Just the sight of the brillante gold shimmer made Logan gawk at the room."Jeez. I mean that's real gold. I don't actually think I've seen gold in real life. Bank heists aren't as common as movies and games make them." Logan admitted,but seeing the quantity of the element still made an expression of awe.

Angie came to the pedestal, carefully minding her steps to avoid setting off some sort of self destruct mechanism that can bring down the whole place from above them. "Uh, whatever happened to 'Just in the movies'?" Logan trolled Angie with delight as her carefulness came just after an assurance of safety, he wondered if she really does have cognitive dissonance or even practice what she preaches. To this though Logan made a more serious expression realizing that the place might be really trapped. "Okay actually I take back what I said. Please don't trip. I'm serious."

But that's not the matter for the moment, Logan and Angie came to the book, expecting to find some instructions on treasure troves or anything of values, but to their collective surprise, once the cover was opened by Angie, they found the pages had been torn out. "What!? Torn out!? How could this be? This can't be right, I'll have to examine this book for a while." Said Angie, disappointed by her lackluster finding.

Logan shocked himself tried to find something to brighten up the shocking situation."Hey at least, we're not buried alive or anything, right? Come on, let's get this thing back up to the camp, maybe you'll have more elbow room there for research." He said looking around. He wasn't much for feeling claustrophobia, but the dark cavern messed with him somehow. Perhaps it was the mystery that was creeping him out.

"You're right Logan, first trip and already I got less than nothing to say. At this rate they might as well fire me and be done with it." The two disappointingly went back to their camp with the book in hands, not knowing that a lone figure was watching them from afar, waiting for a chance to pounce on his preys.

The situation only made itself more bizarre. Something of which Logan was known never to take well. "Well. Hey. Don't be like that. Come on. I'm sure the professor can explain. Maybe someone in the past broke in, and this is like an act of arson. Maybe to destroy history. You know be reckless?" Logan suggested trying to find some comfort for Angie.

However, his girlfriend sighed out disappointingly as she held the book's cover by her armpit while walking back out of the tomb with Logan next to her. "No Logan it's not simple as that. If it was a funeral book no one would do that, let alone a biography as it would be needed for future pharaohs. In fact a book is the one thing that is not on the list of arson target. Back then, arsonists and Tomb Raiders want the gold and wealth inside the tomb they built." She slumped her head down and stroke her chin thinking about the plausible reasons behind the arson of what could have been a priceless historical text of the ancient world.

It was a spectacular set back even for a novice, even a recruit could, on theory, recover something of value. But this was simply insane, what arguably, the greatest troll effort since the Khosrow better version of Antioch.

A book made by ancient priests and scholars, placed in a vault for protection only to be found that the pages were torn out ages ago, 700 pages missing to be exact. For the remainder of the day, Angie spent most of her time inspecting the book and comparing the torn pattern with that of the page she worked on prior to leaving for Ewegypt.

Logan, however, got the privilege to guard the expedition's artifacts, he stood inside a tent full of Pharaoh's personal belongings. The timber wolf took his time to marvel the beauty and divine splendor of a godly king, the jewelries, necklaces, burial mask made of gold even the sarcophagus itself was lavishly decorated with gold and spells for religious ceremonies.

Logan looking at the priceless artifacts made an impressed whistle. "A lesser man i guess would steal this. BUT! Angie would kill me." Logan said to himself. He for some reason didn't seem to be interested in the items. If anything his hud pestered him by labeling the quality of the gold in the room, weight, and even the prices. Logan though was committed to his work and ignored the HUD."I swear it's like there's another person living in me… One that tries to block my view, and tell me stuff I know." Logan then looked around and sighed. "And I'm talking to myself in a room full of belongings to a dead guy."

Logan continued to look around at the ancient items that belonged to the pharaoh . Of all the worldly possession a Pharaoh had to enjoy, Logan found the royal bed was much more attractive, not only in its design, but also by how the craftsmanship weave together a simple in design but heavenly in enjoyment. It was wicker bed with a pillow on it that has been decaying over time. The legs of the bed were gold plated with ornate cobra designs of Wadjet, the serpent Goddess of protection.

"This bed can always let you know who's the master at being a pimp. I wonder what's the secondary purpose of this thing?" He cheekily muttered to himself as he inspects the bed's design. But that wasn't the only thing in the tent that caught Logan's attention. He crept over to the leisure contents of the tent and found himself a board game with some pieces still attached to it. It looked like a much more elaborate version of the common Senat game played and enjoyed by most folks of Ancient Ewegypt.

He made a short humm to announce his thoughts, but of course being him he said them out loud "Huh. I guess this was pretty popular with the rich and poor people. I think. Have no idea how to play this though." He tilts and turns the board in his hands, inspecting the nooks and crannies only to find a crack under the board. "Somebody must have raged quit." He commented. After he commented though he darted his eyes around the tent after now realizing his talking was getting worse. "God I hope nobody is listening to me… Still talking to yourself Logan." He muttered.

As the night falls across the desert, the temperature dropped to freezing level, the burning sand in the morning was now freezing. The expedition crew light up their campfires and relax themselves after a hard day at work. Angie was still in her tent after dinner, she obsessively tried her damn best to figure out the exact page of the torn paper until Logan came in. "Still working on that book?" He asked.

"Yeah, I have around 700 missing pages, in this book. Whatever pages still remain in here, they're empty." Logan finds it rather disturbing that his girlfriend would still be active and working her tail off at this time of day. Normally this is something he would do when investigating a case, but to also see Angie stay up was worrisome to Logan"You know, maybe you should take sometime to rest. A good night's sleep might help clear out some problems from your mind." he cleared his voice out, and made a quick shrug. "Okay. Yes. I know. I don't sleep much either, but you should at least." Logan recommended putting her health over his own.

Considering the fact that she has taxed her strength down to none, a rest and some sleep are advisable. Consequently, she yawned and laid down on her bunk bed.

"Aren't you supposed to be guarding the shed?" She asked under the sleepy face.

"Good news, some guys from the crew are doing it for me, so I'll be here with you the whole night." Of course, nothing was as peaceful as the calm desert at night. On the edge of the camp's perimeter, a lone hooded figure was approaching at breakneck speed, the infiltrator's stature denotes an athletic male.

He swoops across the camp as swift as the wind, his movements were carefully concealed by the night, his presence, a mystery. He came across a pair of rhinos guarding the artifacts, the two male rhinos were obviously bored of their job, so the two resorted to a game of poker to kill time.

"This should work." He muttered, his paw reached into a pouch on his belt, from inside the pouch, he brought out a dates-like terracotta bomb with highly detailed hieroglyphic decors on its surfaces. He lobbed the bomb on the ground towards the two rhinos before running away to another tent nearby, the bomb exploded and detonation releases a cloud of anesthetic gas, the two rhinos coughed and fell to the ground, unconscious by the sudden attack. At that very moment, Logan and Angie were woken up in their tent by the commotion outside, the campers were disturbed and rushed out to check the matter. "It's about time, now for the target." Said the lone infiltrator as he sneaked behind Angie's green tent, he then used a curved knife to cut a hole in the tent before storming in.

Angie was still inside when the infiltrator came in, she screamed out when she saw him coming for her, his hands reached out to her book, seemingly trying to pry it out of her grip. "No you won't!" She kicked and struggle to protect herself from the attacker.

Then Logan burst into the tent with a pistol aiming at the desert nomad's head while his face showed a fury seeing his loved one in danger. Normally very calm and collected this attack on Angie anger into him. "Let her go or I'll scatter your brains all over the place." He threatens the assailant, but the attacker wasn't deterred by Logan's threat, he kicked sand into Logan's face, threw Angie aside before rushing Logan himself. First the attacker knocked Logan's pistol off, then he swept Logan off of his feet and throw him onto the ground. Logan made a pained groaning growl. "Oh so that's how you want to play? Alright, if you say so." Logan eagerly got back on his feet, taunting his opponent in battle.

The nomadic jackal then proceeds to charge forward to Logan, he made a quick pounce on Logan, using the right thigh of the robotic wolf as a launchpad to propel himself back and found a good angle to launch a bicycle kick into his chest and before making a backflip, landing his feet on the sand gracefully. He however was growing concern despite demonstrating a more agile fighting skill in comparison to Logan himself. He has to make sure that this battle ends quickly he barrel forward intending to kick Logan square in the stomach, but by then, the robot wolf's senses were better attuned to the attacker's movements and fighting style.

Something told Logan to make a sliding dash to the right to avoid the kick. When he did he grabbed his attacker's legs, and then twisted him around to drop him to the ground. The attacker spun for a moment before he fell to his side. Logan still standing raised his right leg, and brought a foot down on his attacker. "This is what we call a difficulty tweak!"

"Damn it, I lost the element of surprise." The nomad grumbled, he was then attacked by Logan, who threw a fist in his face, the nomad narrowly dodged the attack only to find that Logan didn't plan on knocking him out instantly, instead, he was ripping off the desert mask and hood, revealing the identity of the assailant to be a black Jackal with amber gold eyes.

"Damn you!" The jackal growls as he was jabbed by Logan in the stomach, he eventually broke free by throwing off Logan's hands and threw a smoke bomb down on the floor, the cloud of smoke bought him just enough time to clear the camp and ran away to safety without further mishaps.

"Are you alright Angie?" Logan asked, caressing his girlfriend and checking for injuries.

"No, he didn't try to kill me, but I think he was going the book." She checked the book for any damages, thankfully, the cover and remaining pages were unharmed. "What does he want with it anyway?" She pondered, both Angie and Logan were pondering over the identity and intends but for now, they should rest and recuperate.

"How's the damage?" Logan asked the foreman.

"Well, beside two of our rhinos got knocked unconscious by sleeping gas. Nothing else." To their collective curiosity, the fragments of the terracotta bomb on the ground was made from the mud found on the banks of the Nile river, the ingredients were bought from local towns and the nearby city of Lycopolis.

The decorative style was of Ancient Ewegypt's hieroglyphs, all of these when brought together denote a mysterious person with agendas that normal person wouldn't be able to comprehend right away. Not to mention his species is a Jackal, a black desert Jackal to be precise, something seen only on the decoration and statues of the god Anubis.

Could it be, the Jackal was Anubis? But nothing can certain unless close inspection can be applied to assailant himself. Angie's curiosity took hold as she tapped Logan's shoulders and showed him the piece of terracotta bomb that was in her paw. "Hey Logan look at this, it's hieroglyphic designs like in Ancient Ewegypt. This one is authentic to the New Kingdom period not like those other souvenirs and the fuses as well as interiors look like they were Bisontine style grenades." She said handing him the fragment of the bombshell for inspection.

Logan shuddered remembering the attackers face, but regardless to the bomb fragment. He wasn't much for forensic science, but he could tell this fragment was well crafted. "Jeez. Whoever that… Zombie looking guy… Was. Well. Look at it. Its well made enough. Not sure where you'd get souvenir grenades that explode, but I'll take your word for it." Logan nodded listening to everything that need to be done next.

"Judging by the craftsman I would say someone has to live in the time of the New Kingdom to remember the exact craftsmanship of pottery and clay to work this one. Even passing down skills generationally wouldn't be a sure fire way to make these things constantly." She look at the fragment once again, noticing how clean it was and its surface bear no bar codes or product number at all. "Totally handmade, with some hardcore history buff works on the decoration for instruction." She observed and scratched her head. "I think we could find some pottery shops in the city to compare the work method. What do you think?" She looked at him raising an eyebrow, knowing full well that his talent as a police officer might help.

Logan himself made a very affirmative nod. He was always ready to put his police skill to good use, and helping Angie would really give him some time to spend with her. He wagged his tail to the thought somewhat excited by it. "Yeah sure! Just me and you. Logan and Angie. Angie and Logan. Going around fighting crime." he chuckled at his own remark.

"Whoa slow down there Logan, we don't even know who or why did the Nomad attack us for. But let's go back into Lycopolis." She then proceeds to go out with him towards the bus station near the campsite after informing Martin. The old goat could only wish them good luck and safety for their journey. Just in case of emergency, Angie brought with her a pistol to defend herself, it was a with one spare magazine as it was hard to gauge the exact level of self defense they need out in the desert and in the city. The bus soon came to the station for them to board and head back into the city. Along the road Angie pulled out their tour guide and city map for Logan to see where should they start looking . "Okay so we're looking for potteries, the best place is the riverbanks where the craftsman can quickly gather the clay for their work. One of them should be the one we're looking for." She said, pointing at a street that ran alongside the river, which was aptly named "Pottery Street".

The name caused Logan to huff seeing just how easy that was to remember, and locate. "Well. That's convenient for us. You might as well put a really big arrow with the text 'this is where you look' Don't worry. I'll try to keep my dry humor down." Logan smiled, but he couldn't help, but look at Angie's pistol. "Also when did you get a weapons licence, and training?"

Angie was noticeably much more nervous at this point when she looked at the gun tugged inside her shirt's pocket. "Umm Martin gave it to me for protection. Though I hope that I only have to scare away some guys with it." She gulped nervously, the thought never crossed her mind before, not even once as she felt that it was a dirty work not meant for her at all. Not one bit in fact. "Anyway, this is one of the oldest part of the city, the houses barely changed since ancient time so we would see some really old school architect there." She tapped her index finger on the map once again before opening a guide book for Logan to see the phrases in Arabic that he could use when going about town.

Logan's expression turned more shocked once he saw the guide book's Arabic phrases. He rubbed his temple just knowing he was going to mess the pronunciations up and mix up words barely understanding the language. "Oh boy. My brain hurts just looking at this. Okay where do we start in this?" he asked ready for the challenge.

Angie of course sighed out and pointed to him at the "Beginner's section" of the guide book and began to train him up from there. Though she has no hope of him learning and actually remembering all of them in one go as it would be impossible.

[hr]

After arriving in town once again, Angie and Logan were now wandering about in the riverside street of town where there are various artisans and pottery shops working around the clock, producing various crafts and goods for the next day's sale and stock up for future sales. Logan could see there were Papyrus shops that advertises non shreddable papyrus scrolls while the potteries were advertising diverse pots for all sorts of purposes. Of course Angie would deride the majority of them as fakes or diluted to suit the consumption of modern tourism. She however went to one random shop owner and asked showed the lynx there the fragment. "Sir do you know who made potteries like this around here?" She asked, part of her was anxious but at the same time, she was feeling like he was going to give them a definitive answer.

The lynx shopkeeper examines the fragment for around five minutes before finally handing it back to her, "I know the old hippo Sheikh Abdullah who lives down the streets by the shop with the red sign there. He makes less but more refined works in quality in comparison to us, Sadiq." the lynx waves his finger into ocean waves to the two as Angie thanked him and went down the streets with Logan towards the shop.

"Guess the guys here know each other pretty well huh?" She commented.

Logan shrugged while he looked around the city. He felt cramped here which was odd knowing he was used to the Zootopia crowd. "Judging by how cramped this place is I'd imagine. That and looking at these old car i think the trading tech might not be as advanced as well as the limited resources. I think knowing each other might bring business. Which means bigger bucks." Logan commented.

"That depends a lot on who do you trade with to begin with." She countered as they came to the shop. In the front side of the pottery shop, Logan found various urns, vases, pots all made from clay, carefully and meticulously molded from the ground up by a delicate hand. But there weren't many of them on display, only some tens of them while others were in the hundreds not counting the stocks. "Look at these, he must have spent hours painting the hieroglyphs on them." She observed, Angie came by a massive urn meant to store weapons like the one inside the tomb, though the empty urn could be used to store other items.

On the surface of the porcelain colored urn was a depiction of an event in history of Ancient Ewegypt that Logan could pass off as anytime in the various eras of the kingdom. The depiction was of Anubis, the Jackal God of the Dead standing on top of the Lighthouse of Alexandria with his bow and arrow ready to fire on invading Romammal troops of Gaius Julius Caesar.

Logan looked at the painting with some curiosity. The hieroglyphic images gave him some interest by their unique and old world design and style. One thing he noted however was the massive Roman army and Anubis. He didn't know just who they were however. "Those look like the Growleeks. No. Wait. Romammals. And then you have this black jackal guy using a bow only to fend them off. Was he an important war like figure in Ewegypt?" Logan asked in a more uneducated manner.

Angie shook her head examining the urn with him great curiosity. "No that's not right, Anubis was a God of the Dead and only seen guiding their souls to the underworld where they are judged in the Weighing of the Heart ritual." She explained dumbfoundedly, the artwork she must say is authentic, but the content it was depicting however was something that no history books has ever mentioned let alone gave a snippet to. They were eventually greeted by a rather bubbly hippo whose stomach seems to take up a good portion of his torso as he was seen waddling from the store in the back of the shop with some urns in hands.

"Nurahib bialzawwar." He exclaimed jubilantly in his native Arabic tongue. "Fi madha 'astatie musaeadatak?" He asked politely tilting his head in closer to better hear them. The shopkeeper was wearing a red fez hat on his head with a tan tunic with green zigzag pattern on its surface running down his chest.

Angie proceeds to hand him the broken fragment of the terracotta bomb, he picked up the fragment with his right hand and put on his glasses to examine its surface, a slight hint of concern and perhaps anxiety began to manifest itself on his face. "Waqal munafisuk 'an qumt bidhalik." Angie said in Arabic to the shopkeeper as he widened his eyes, his irises shrink. "Aistakhdam albadw hadhih alqunbulat alty qumt biha daduna. Man kan hdha?" she asked and he was left petrified as a statue holding the fragment in his hand. Logan however could see that on his hands, there was still mud left on it from his work making potteries and urns.

The hippo bitten his lips as he tries to hold on to a secret. "'Ana lm ailtaqaa zabayini min qabla." He replied this prompted Angie to turned to Logan and informed him what he said.

"He said that he has never met his customer before." She translated to him.

However, just seeing the man's face alone was enough to get Logan's fears checked in. Logan being the officer that he is needed to know a good sense of body language to understand when someone is lying, but clearly he knew to hippo was telling the truth. The only problem is Logan's confusion amounted hearing the two of them go back and forth in a conversation in a dialect he knew nothing of. "So I guess this customer really likes to keep low profile, and then make out of store requests then. Other than that I have absolutely no idea what the two of you said." Logan cocked his head to the side in a curious manner.. "How many other languages are you fluent in?"

Angie smiled lightly at him and replies nonchalantly. "Oh I'm fluent in Hebrew, Growleek, Pig Latin, Coptic and Arabic." She breathes out after explaining to him the amount of languages she speaks fluently, which were the very languages that he doesn't know. "Anyway to cap it off, I told him that he made this terracotta bomb the nomad used and he seems to be saying that he has never met his customer before." She sighed out as she looked back at the hippo who was now putting the fragment on his counter and was rummaging through some terracotta products inside a wooden box. He put the box on the counter as well and inside were dozens of terracotta bombs curvy in shape and all of them look like a well rounded potato.

Logan's eyes got big seeing the amount of nicely made terracotta bombs the hippo has. It reminded him of two certain coyotes for some odd reason. "Jeez! Those look too nice to even blow up!" logan shook his head out quickly in surprise as he admired the craftsman work here. "And I thought Canyon and Hunter had a collection of weapons! I mean they made scratch made dynamite, but this is crazy!" Logan finished off his impressed exclamation.

"Yaktub faqat kabar 'iilaya. 'Iirshad li jaeal hadhih watarakuha dakhil alshajirat. Dayimaan tarak almal kulama yakhtar lahum." The hippo sighed out disappointingly in himself with his face slumped down on the counter. Angie right away translated his words to Logan.

"He said that his customer writes letters to instruct him to make these things and leave them in the bushes of the Papyrus trees. Then the customer arrives to pick them up and leave money behind for him." Angie's translation rang intrigue into Logan's ears as he was made aware of the network of production.

Logan scratched the back of his head hearing this. "Man. Not exactly how business is done back home, but I guess it's been working out." he turned his head to Angie now thinking up of a plan. "Maybe if we find the bushes and then we can intercept the guy who attacked us. See what he knows." Logan suggested.

The hippo shook his head however and waves his hands in a gesture of scaring them away. "La la la! Adhhab beydaan alan kunt shadun hataa eamaliin." Said the hippo shopkeeper as he push them out of his shop vehemently and gestured them to go away.

"Well that was helpful." She huffed out and crossed her arms at his less than hospitable attitude towards their questioning.

Logan lowered his head, and made a less than confident smile. "Okay. I might have caused that outburst. But we do have a lead at least. One we can follow." he stood back up and looked around for anymore clues they could possibly use. Logan paced around the street using his keen sight possibly to find where the lead would go. He ended up looking back at the building, and seeing if there was more here. "Well I have several ideas. Charlie taught me how to climb walls so I could do that to find more clues in there while sneaking, two we could always make a decoy bomb to trap the guy at the bushes if we find them, or three continue rummaging the city for some clues." Logan stated firing off carious suggestions.

Angie contemplates the options for a bit before glancing back at the shop, it would seem like the hippo was working at the back of the shop but her ears can't pick up any sounds of him working on new clay products instead, in all actuality, he was writing a letter in ancient Coptic language, the writing style was hieratic and his expression was very tense. "How about let's go around the city? There's got to be more than just one guy supplying the nomad. After all he needs to buy ingredients for gunpowder from somewhere." She suggested though her tone was rather nervous, not sure how to best select how plan.

Logan tapped his foot on the ground thinking as well. His brows met at the center of his face while he thought. The explosives part however sounded the most important as that was the key ingredient in weaponizing the clay. "Okay. We go find who's making gunpowder. Believe me. I can also maybe note the authorities around here that someone is cooking up explosives. Give them something to watch in case someone decides to have a smoke break around the wrong building." Logan stated. He was also concerned for public safety knowing explosives may be present. Something he knew was important to keep watch of closely.

Angie nodded to him, noting his words as they went towards a different section of the city, it would be like finding a needle in a haystack with the explosive production location isn't exactly a place where tourists are admitted. And if the culprit buys his ingredients from separate sources who produces separate products then it's even more impossible. However, one more thing that caught Angie and Logan's eyes was the temple of Anubis itself, the temple was near their hotel, just up the street towards a hill that crest over the city.

The statues there were much more traditional in appearance and the temple seems to be well preserved with various hieroglyphic depictions of Anubis doing his duties. One such depiction however shows him walking amongst the populace of the mortals.

He was dressed in a rather simple outfit, his garment consists of a trouser wore by most of the populace with his torso bared and on his head he only wore a simple head dress of lowly nobles with his scepter in hand as he walked along the streets like an everyday pedestrian.

Logan noticed though just how lowly a deity such as Anubis seemed. At first thinking Anubis was highly revered now Logan was seeing Anubis was much more simpler. "Huh. That's odd. Correct me if i'm wrong, but he doesn't look exactly rich. He might as well be a carpenter." Logan commented. He at least seemed to be catching on and had an increasing interest to the history around the place. He almost forgot that there was work to be done, and that this was on his vacation time.

"He was neither rich nor poor." Said a gatekeeper mouse to Logan. He was seen wearing a turban on his head and on him was a brown tunic with a long, baggy pair of trousers. "Great Anubis is our divine protector, our heavenly compassionate provider who do no wrong and live among us." He proclaims proudly to Logan and Angie as she knelt down to listen to the mouse.

"Are you the gatekeeper of this temple?" Angie asked nervously and the mouse nodded to her with his floppy ears fluttering.

"That I am, a proud guardian of this temple and welcome new faithfuls to its sanctuary." He moved his hand upward to show them the stairway up to the entrance, it wasn't a steep flight of stair rather a leveled approach. Not only that but Logan and Angie can see that the entrance alone is already well preserved and cleaned to the point the site may as well be opened for religious services.

The sight was enough to get in a more professional stance back raised and a calm walk. This time Logan knew not to touch anything that didn't belong to him."Man this vacation just gets more and more crazy. Also wow there are a lot of freaking stairs." Logan said trying to keep up with the flight he was climbing, but felt his calves burning.

Angie nodded as she climbs the stairs with Logan towards the entrance of the temple where they saw a lion in toga spreading petals down on the floor around a fountain in the main courtyard. The lion greeted them inside the temple where they found statues of Anubis holding his ankh and scepter guarding the courtyard, each statues were around 15 meters tall with shiny layer of coat on them that sparks the black fur color of Anubis as he was depicted with various other colors such as sapphire, gold, red and green strategically placed on the statues to give off the best impression of the deity. "Behold the house of Anubis." Said the lion as spread his last petal. "We welcome all new faithfuls to our roof and wishes them safe passages into the underworld under his protection." He said with a strong and manly voice that seems to solidify his age and possible long tenure of the temple.

Logan shuddered a bit hearing this. He kept the thought of this being a cult to himself, but the underworld part got him weirded out sounding cryptic. "Uh. Back at you." Logan looked at Angie making an odd nervous whimper. He lowered his voice to a whisper. "I don't know. I thought we were looking for explosives. Powder, plastic, liquid even! I have an odd feeling about this place. I can tell since the back of my neck is itching. That only happens when I get a bad feeling." Logan looked around nervously while he walked along.

Angie nodded to him feeling slightly odd at the surrounding. "I can feel it too, something weird is going on around here."

"Perhaps you two would like to take a tour of the temple?" The lion asked them politely though Logan and Angie were quick to notice that he was closing a door behind him. It looked like a shed judging by a glance from Logan's eyes and his sensitive nose was quick to pick chemical scent in the air of what could be ingredients to make explosives and gunpowder.

The smell was like rotten eggs almost. Sulfur like in a way, and partially metallic, and natural gas like. Logan's nostrils flared opening and close while his head and face pointed upwards sniffing the air. Angie noticed his face had gotten more intense and had a frown on it as well as a suspicious squint. Logan said nothing, but his body language was enough to get her to know he caught on with something. He slowly followed his nose using it to follow the scent.

Angie was quick to nod to the lion and accept his offer of a tour. "Of course I would like to take a tour, my boyfriend here could wait here a bit since I think he likes the statues." She reasoned with the lion who eyed Logan cautiously and nodded to her excuse before proceeding to lead her on a tour with him. Leaving Logan alone to freely check on whatever they were hiding.

Logan waited a minute before they left to make sure he was alone. Once that was done he then made a quiet dash for the door he smelled the stench coming from. He looked at the door knob, and made a quick grab into it to open, but not a big surprise to him it was locked up. "Alright. First rule that someone is hiding something. They hide it behind a door." Logan said talking to himself again.

He cringed though realizing a way to get the door open. He looked at his right arm, and focused his attention to his right index finger. "Here I go being a robot again. Oh boy this is fun…" Logan then placed the tip of his finger on the lock. What followed was his finger turning a shiny chrome while liquid metal controlled by him flowed into the lock. His face however looked saddened by this despite being helpful. The assimilation of his body, and reminder of it by doing this was a hefty toll.

The mechanism behind the door lock finally clicked after being filled with the liquid metal enough. Logan then retracted the metal back to his finger, and then let the grey fur disguise on the finer go back into proper shape. Before he opened however he at least made one witty comment. "And behind door number one…" He then twisted the knob and pushed the door open to see what was on the other side.

As he opened the door, he found that the room was being used as a storage for chemical compounds that can be used to make explosives and gunpowder. There were stacks of Nitroglycerin already processed and stored to prevent accidental explosion, there were also stocks of gunpowder kept inside hardened crates to prevent explosions and insulated to prevent degradation. In whole, it was a massive stock of war supply.

Logan as much as he raised his eyelids to make a shocked look had to squint one of his eyes to give a questionable look to the operation being run here. "Yeah… Peaceful and welcoming. Which is why I'm looking at a fucking stash of explosive enough to make Hunter and Canyon jealous…"Logan said dryly. He took photos of the room using his optics, but he couldn't help, and feel ashamed for doing this. It just proved to him he was giving into his robotic form. He made sure though to take a very thorough walk around the room to get as much "dirt" as possible.

As Logan was looking for dirt however he stumble across a manifest for delivery shipment that also includes an instruction to deposit the cargo by the river dock and labeled them as "Agricultural products" to make the shipping easier for the barge to pick up. The instruction apparently was sent by a certain "Ahmad the Nomad." a rather strangely simple name for an anonymous fighter. The date for delivery is set to be tomorrow as the barge will pick up the cargo.

"Well then. I guess I have a date then with a boat. Ew God." Logan stuck his tongue out grossed out by his own joke, but wrote the information down mentally. He however needed a way to present this imagery and evidence, and without relying verbal descriptions. "Okay then . I guess i'll be seeing you then." Logan said to himself as he exited the room. He closed the door behind himself, and just as Angie recommended went back to the statues to pretend he was gawking at them.

By then Angie has returned to Logan from her tour with the lion priest of the temple as they were impressed by the place's layout and history, Angie's camera has an impressive collection of photos of the place, ranging from a complete text book of the Funeral Book of the Dead with others showing ceremonial of the past showing the temple has continued its existence and service well into the modern day.

They both however saw Logan looking up at the statue. It looked like he had a case of the "bird brain" as he just stared at the statue with his neck arched up and his mouth hanging open as if it were limp. He however made his appearance seemingly more stupid purposely to remove any suspicions of him.

Angie smiled and begged good bye to the lion as she then went down the stair again with Logan towards their hotel room, she scrolled through her camera collection of photographs to show him what she found. The amount of history inside the temple's walls were staggering as it stands as a staunch religious institution for newcomers and old faithfuls worshippers alike. It was quite surprising to see a lowly God of old is still revered in the modern world. When in the ancient world he was a lowly deity beneath Osiris and others. "Here you go Logan, look at this, it's like a single cult of Anubis survived well into the modern day and people are still worshipping him."

Logan shook his head out and got a more serious expression on his face. He cleared his throat out while looking at what she had found. "So about old stupid face back there, but I thought these guys were going to catch up. Alright now let's see…" Logan examining the evidence made a more creeped out frown at what he was seeing. His head and neck moved away from what he was looking at. "Oh my God! This is almost like those black magic, voodoo ritual things. Maybe even witch doctoring, but in a cult." he looked at Angie with a shocked look. "And if it's a cult then maybe we're looking at like a forced brainwashing." his expression went more intense and he looked back at the shed he investigated. "And Angie. I found my own evidence. A ton of it. Enough to send this entire temple into the sky if someone were to set off a spark…" Logan gulped.

"It will send anyone there to meet Anubis prematurely." Angie concluded as they were heading back to the hotel room they were staying in, the room was on the 6th floor with a balcony overlooking the city as well as the temple nearby. "It's strange but I think that the nomad who attacked us is like some sort of highly trained warrior and tomb guardian. Like a Medjai in ancient time." She opened up her laptop on the bed of the hotel room and began to access her museum's database on the Medjai, photos began to pop up showing a group of heavily armored lions armed with shields, Khopesh swords and spears as well as battle axe, a legion of bodyguards trained to protect the pharaoh. "Here it is Logan, the Medjai probably the closest thing we have to the guy who attacked us."

Logan went next to her on the bed,a nd looked into her laptop. He saw of course just what she meant since what he was looking at brought some memories of the attacker. Some one of which Logan still felt a chill by just remembering look in the Jackal's eyes he however had one point of interest perk up in his mind. "Yeah, but those guys are ever attacked us was some kind of canine like you and me. And for whatever reason he felt cold just being around." Logan shivered. "If they really are worshipping an undead deity then let's hope they are also not funded. By the way." Logan cleared his throat and sighed. "I have the images of the explosives, but they are all stored in my brain, or whatever my brain is now." Logan shrugged though was willing to show her the images he took with his "eyes".

Angie nodded and pulled out a USB cable and connect one end into her laptop and handed Logan the other end of the cable for him to connect into whatever ports on his body that's compatible to it. "Here you go I think I might be able to work on the files and photos you took. Maybe at least print them out from a printer." She suggested as she fired up her My Computer.

Logan nodded. He grabbed hold of the USB cable, and directed it to the back of his head. Then Angie heard the sounds of him separating the liquid metal that was on the back of his neck. A red color panel then opened showing various ports. Some round and circular. Others square shaped, but he placed the USB in a corresponding connector. He sighed seeing a little pop up on the left of his HUD appear seeing an a waiting access window. On Angie's computer a small window that was asking her to give permission to Logan, or what the technology referred to him as.

Angie then moved her mouse cursor towards the "ALLOW" button and press on it quickly, the window then shows a bar slowly filling up with a green bar running from the left hand side. Once it filled up completely a new ? icon popped up on the list of hardware detected by the laptop with a code L0G4N display on it. "Alright you're in my Laptop now Logan." She said.

He nodded, and with access she saw he had control over her laptop. She saw a small avatar of his in his real flesh, but also saw he was displaying the images of the explosives shed he took. However, she had unlimited access into his body now, and if she so chose he could see his memories, and even take control of him as displayed by an install panel. It even showed she just need to use the WASD keys to move him around, and the mouse to change where he looked like a first person game. Seeing this though Logan looked away, and huffed slightly offended at his own body, and to what Alice did to him.

Angie looked on in complete surprise at how detailed and strangely high tech the interface was. But then again it was to be expected, she then proceeds to use the WASD keys to move his avatar around out of curiosity towards the first photo to access it and view it. The photo showed an overview angle of the shed with stocks of explosives piling up on one another. "Feeling alright Logan?" She asked concernedly not knowing how is he taking to the idea of having an avatar of him being controlled inside his own body and now synthetic cyber brain.

Logan was hiding his face by this point in both hands showing he wasn't taking it that well. "I have a feeling you can control my own body as well…" He groaned, but along the way the avatar walked around seeing memories. Some locked, and some opened to view. The ones opened were of when the two met. Some of the locked ones though were unknown to her unless she controlled Logan to open them. However,as the pictures floated around himself he selected one of the alarming photos that ended up to be a video of his search in the shed. "Here. This one has just how many they had. Oh and please don't click the locked memories. I know what they are, but… Embarrassing… That's what they are." Logan gulped. One floated by showing him and Charlie hanging out as friends in a more recent history.

Angie gulped knowing that it is her responsibility not to do anything that might otherwise embarrass Logan for a sense of entertainment. She then began to copy the photos over to her laptop and its attached USB. As the process was completed within a brisk 3 minutes. She then proceeds to press releasing the cable from Logan and pull it out of his port. "There that should do it and thanks for the help Logan." She kissed his cheek lightly and patted his chin. "You gotta teach me how to do programming next time." She said.

Logan made a faint smile, and laid down on the bed right after he got the liquid metal back of the panel. He rubbed his face though. "I know I've been whining a lot about it, but it just doesn't feel normal. Everything is so complex now with this body." Logan raised his head slightly to watch the tv at the end of the room. He however was a thankful individual for having Angie by hi side still. "Not sure if all of those explosives were put into those small bombs, but i still feel like local authority needs to be alerted." Logan recommended.

Angie nodded to him as she plugged her laptop in for recharge as she sat down on her bed next to him. "Well if the the shopkeeper is anything to go by, not to mention the temple itself, do you think that the cops of the town is a little bit nervous to do their job?" She asked bringing up what could be a very real possibility. "I mean think about it, this city has a strong and consistent following of Anubis from the past to the present, do you think that the Cult of Anubis have some sort of control over the police?" She glanced over at him to see how he answers that question.

Logan frowned at those ideas. He sat up and squinted in thought. It was a twisted idea, but one that could be likely no less. "Oh God. I never thought of that. What are they paying law enforcement to corrupt them from doing their jobs though?..." Logan tapped his foot on the bed while he thought. One however disturbed him. "Unless… Something is scaring the police into cooperation…"

Angie lay down next to him with her face looking up at the ceiling stroking her chin before cuddling up with him, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waists. "Well it ain't the first time, the cops of Purru even discouraged the Museum expedition back in the 30s when they were going up the Andes to explore some Inca ruins. I suspect that the cult in town may have a strong grip on the cops in certain aspect while letting them do their job for the the rest." She kisses his lips passionately as she felt his metal frame held her close and safe. "Maybe we need to keep an eye out for the cop as well." She finished.

Logan made a reassuring nod to her, and smiled. He then wrapped his arms around her to bring her close to his chest. "Hey. Even if the cops around here are bugged you at least have this one by your side. Right?"

Angie likewise chuckled at him before proceeding to kiss him passionately again letting him grabbing her breasts as they once again consummate their love for one another on their bed. "I know you always got my back." She said.

[hr]

As for the jackal, he made his way across the desert, back to an oasis near the tomb, there he sat down and start a campfire, counting his losses and none of his gain.

"Ahmad! You're back, how did it go? Did you find what you're looking for?" One of the camel asked.

"No, I'm afraid not. I fear that I might have to try something much more drastic the next time." Ahmad reply to the camel. He was greatly disappointed, his attack to regain the book from the hands of grave robbers was thwarted and now he need mount a brand new attack, a greater effort before this setback became irreversible damage.

"Don't tell me you're going to mobilize the tribe to attack the outsiders? You know that you don't want to drag anyone else into your battles?" The camel frantically asked. Ahmad's grim expression and thinking for now, rendered him deaf to the conversation.

Around him were nomadic people who had lived with him for generations, they accepted his presence, grateful for the protection he provided and the oasis that he founded for them. The desert nomadic people saw him as their savior and saints, silent, decisive, determine and yet, compassionate.

To motivate them into battles with him was a thought he dare not entertain, but now he must mobilize the warriors of the tribe to follow him into battles against his enemies. "I must admit to you, this time I will need your help. I don't need you to kill them, rather, I need you to simply create enough distraction for me to get in there and obtain the book." The camel's expression lightens up in sharp contrast to grim, concerned expression normally seen on the jackal.


	3. Chapter 3: Train to Hypostyle Hall

Chapter 3: Train to Hypostyle Hall

After a night of sightseeing and much needed rest, it was time for finding some answers regarding Pharaoh Thescalineces career. Judging by the size of the tomb itself, which is small and modest compared to the high profile nature of the pyramid, one can draw the conclusion that Pharaoh Thescalineces was not of great importance, the hieroglyphs even denote that he did not do anything ground breaking.

From what little information Angie had at her disposal, she can learn from the tomb's chronicles that Thescalineces did not wage to expand border, nor did he conquer neighboring kingdoms in any credible ways, he was more of a domestic policy ruler. She sat in her tent and called the museum curator via MuzzleTime to get some more information. She stares into the screen and waits for the curator to pick up her call, and surely enough, he did pick up her call.

Angie found the curator was hastily putting something under the desk, she couldn't figure out what but opted to raise an innocent question to be sure. "Umm, sir what were you reading back there?" She asked, the purple hippo nervously stutters and hastily answer her question. "Ah, I-uh-I was just simply-reading some baseballs and sport news. Nothing to make a fuss about. So-um-how was your first day working out in the field?" The curator kept up his jolly face as he sipped his coffee.

"Well, I was very excited to find a whole new set of rooms built inside the tomb, they're completely different than the normal design of the other ones." Her excitement caught the curator's morbid attention. At first he had thought that she would fail in her quest, but this breakthrough will consequently be translated into additional funding and support for her. The curator coughed up his own coffee for a second or two before finally regaining his attention.

"R-really? You did? Well-I-uh-must say congratulation! Your efforts are most astounding indeed. What else did you find in there?" Angie was nervous, she hesitated and collected herself for a moment before finally spilling the beans.

"Well, I found a book hidden in an underground vault, apparently built by ancient Ewegyptians. But here is the thing, when I found the book, the pages were torn out. I counted about 700 pages missing, also the book's design is very out-of-place for ancient Ewegyptians considering the written format is contained in a scroll not a book with pages like later periods." The hippo found himself sharing Angie's curiosity, he too felt something odd was going on, "Right, is there anything I can do for you, Mrs. Flufferson?"

"Yes, can you provide me some more information regarding Pharaoh Thescalineces? Because the chronicler who did the hieroglyphs and writing certainly didn't leave much to research." The purple hastily grabbed a drawer by his left hand and pulled out a case file pertaining the particular Pharaoh, then, he read the information to Angie.

"Pharaoh Thescalineces was the 5th Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty during the New Kingdom Era. He was more interested in domestic reforms and improving national institutions and streamlining bureaucracy. There had been documentaries that he was interested in building secret passages, tunnels and other rooms that would otherwise be off limit to normal government officials and commoners alike. However, archives about him were lost when the Library of Alexandria was burned to the ground. One of the temple he built, the temple of Osiris, in the complex of Karnak was rumored to have various secret rooms added after construction was done. Maybe you can find something there." Angie's excitement built up and she hastily thanked the curator before racing off to fetch Logan for a trip down to the famed Temple complex of Karnak. Their best bet is to get there by train, so they travel lightly, carrying bare necessities only.

Logan in the meantime was taking a hot shower to relieve some stress. Both of being a robot,and an intimate moment the previous night. Part of Logan felt his legs numb still. However as the water poured onto his frame an electrical blue arch of a lighting shape went around his body.

His eye darted over to his arms, but he groaned seeing what was happening. The liquid metal was being affected by the hot steaming water. Each water droplet weakened the disguise by causing his normal appearance to ripple, and have the occasional lightning bolt to arch on him.

Even more to his disappointment is the disguise began to disappear, and was replaced by the shiny chrome coloration of the liquid metal. The liquid then disappeared back into his metal body leaving him a red and black mess. "For the love of christ! Can't even take a normal shower!" he shouted angrily to himself. He stomped a foot down, but it only caused him to slip on the hot wet floor of the sower and land with a loud thud. All Angie heard was him yelling and him falling however.

Angie quickly ran into the shower with her excitement cut short by the sound of his falling and yelling. "Logan, are you alright in there!?" She asked frantically as she was about to enter the shower of their room. Logan could hear from his audio sensor that Angie's footsteps were due to her own concern of his well being. "I locked the door but are you alright in there!?"

Logan groaned, and made a hissed inwards breath. "Yeah. Yeah. I'm fine. I'm fin- AGH!" he yelped feeling his back ache slightly. He turned the shower off, and walked out realized he wasn't getting much relaxation in there either. Much as a canine would though he shook the water off of his body in shakes that started from his head leading down to his tail.

Angie would then extends a hand to help him up to his feet and turned off the sprinkler in the shower. "Logan I got a lead, there's a temple of Osiris in Karnak that Pharaoh Thescalineces built. We can get there by train to explore the site maybe finding some connections to the tomb's armory and the vault." She said excitedly as she handed him a towel to clean himself up as she marvels at the sight of his robot frame. Though it was to be expected for the fact that he was meant to look extremely sexy to the eyes of anyone.

Logan's optics widen for a second. He was excited as well. Hearing a lead to follow brought some joy to him. "Oh good! Hang on let me get ready!" Logan exclaimed. He dried himself off using the towel to dry himself off by rubbing it around his body. Angie though saw Logan had placed some odd items that don't belong in a bathroom on the sink. Micro fiber towels that were yellow in color, some polishing compound for cars, and even more some cleaner wax also meant for automotive purposes. Logan however didn't notice her staring. He had already know he was a sight, but he remembered how others would stare at Charlie as well.

Angie then shook her head and get out of her strange fondness and fetish for his body's appearance and proceeds to went out to her room and packing her backpacks and his own. "We'll have to travel lightly considering our trip, maybe bring along the pistol as well for safety if the attack on Martin's camp is anything to go by." She said as she tossed her journal into her backpack as well as some other essential datas about where they were going.

Logan nodded and went through the procedure of getting himself ready. A tiresome one of most, but this is who he was now. "Yeah. I have one 9 millimeter. The red necks said it wasn't enough and they wanted me to have .44 revolver at least. I told them I wasn't out for trouble, but then they just argued. Agh…" He then used the three step process of wax on wax off of applying polishing compound on his body to clean himself off, and get a better shine to his appearance. He followed up finally by applying the cleaner wax, letting it dry, and then using the micro fiber towel to get the product off of his body. Next of course was applying a copious amount of cologne to his body, and then he was ready.

He walked out of the bathroom, and began to get the liquid metal back over his body staring off as a liquidus shimmering chrome that covered him followed by his body returning to its flesh and fur appearance. For clothes though he prefered some real items rather than just his liquid metal to cover him. He put on a tan colored undershirt, and a green long sleeve over that with three buttons he left undone at the top of his chest. He wore blue jeans with a brown belt with a gold colored oval shaped buckle. He smiled again feeling more ready after he put on a backpack with a gun holster on his left side by his chest. "Alright. I think i'm ready at least. I know i have the compartment in my thigh, but this is faster to grab onto." He said pointing to his side holster.

Angie nodded to him as she cock and lock her pistol before slipping it into the pocket inside her jacket out of sight though not entirely undetected from metal detectors. However considering where they are going, it was very unlikely for them to come across such security measures. "Alright let's go then." She exclaims and lead him out of their hotel room.

But while the two were packing their bags for the travel, Ahmad, the nomadic black Jackal, was stalking them on the horizon from the west. The desert wind blew over his shoulder as his ears perked up and twitch around, as the sands flew from his shoulders and the wind blew over his fur, he heard voices in the wind, instructing him on what the outsiders were up to, especially the young wolves.

"So, they're moving to the Valley, looks like I'll have to be away for sometime." Ahmad then headed back to his tribe to inform them of his journey. He traveled with haste and purpose, mindful of the time that was passing by, and the scorching sun on his back was coming to high noon as each hour passed. Once he had finally reached the oasis, he entered the tent of the chieftain, an elderly lion who sat to hear poems and manage the tribe's resources. "Sheik Yusuf, I must leave for the Valley to the south with haste. I will be back as soon as my mission there is done, this I promise you."

Ahmad said with the determination and vigor of spry boy. Yusuf in turn, gave the Jackal a warm smile of assurance, the elderly feline pat Ahmad on the sturdy shoulder. "You go now before it's too late, don't just waste time in my tent. You are, after all, our saint for centuries and always have been. We understand your quest and burden and are willing to lay down our lives for its accomplishment." Ahmad thanked Sheik Yusuf and headed out to the train station near the city of Lycopolis.

On his way there, he rides on the wind of the desert, approaching ever closer to the outskirt areas. Eventually, Ahmad hopped back on his feet, he crawled on his stomach to a sand dune, where the train station was in sight, the passengers were boarding the train carts and the luggage were being loaded up in the proper cargo car. His eyes scanned the crowds of mammals and found the two lupines who stole the book from its vault.

"There they are, I need to get on the train, the rear car is the best bet right now." Ahmad thought to himself, he planned his moves carefully with painstaking details and intricate planning. Once the train began to roll off the station, Ahmad ran along the railroad, eventually coming up on a high ground, where he jumped off and landed on the top of the rear car.

"That's going to leave a mark." He grunted, the black jackal gently rolled himself to the rear entrance before dropping down, just to be safe, he ducked into the wall and took a peek inside the car, he noticed the cargo car was loaded with armed mammals in uniform red outfit and turban, some of them wore balaclavas to conceal their identities. To make matters worst, they have their weapons hidden inside the cargo boxes and managed to smuggle it on the train. One of the assailants, a spotted hyena pried open a wooden box and share the weapons inside with his fellow cultists.

"Not good, they're faster than I thought, I need to stop them right here and now." He then grabbed a stun bomb from one of his pouch and tossed it through the glass windows into the car. The bomb exploded and stunned the assailants with loud sound and bright light, Ahmad stormed in, armed with only a signature curve knife and a sickle like sword, the Khopesh, he rolled in slashing the assailants left and right. Some of them tried to fire their weapons at him, only to have his knife thrusts up their stomach and his Khopesh lobbed off their heads.

Unfortunately, luck was not always on his side, one of the assailants accidentally fired off a few automatic shots into the air and blew his cover just as the train was coming into the station. Up on the passenger cars, the civilians and local authorities can hear the distinctive gunshots, they panicked and call the police in to investigate right away.

The station and civilians were hastily evacuated as the local authority began to board and search the train for all cars. Down in the rear car, Ahmad had taken down all oppositions, save for a lone survivor, shivering in fear and cowered in a corner. "You have exactly 5 minutes before I draw your blood on the floor, so spill it quick. How many men do you have in the Valley?" Ahmad had his blade crept up on the tender spot on the survivor's neck, he grabbed the red hooded figure's mask and pulled it down, revealing the spotted hyena underneath.

"Forget it, you old fool. Not matter what you do, our lord will rise again. Soon, his glory will engulf the world and a new order shall be forged from the ruins of the old." The hyena coughed up some blood from his mouth and, with every remaining ounce of strength he can muster, pulled a grenade's pin, leaving the grenade lying on the ground, forcing Ahmad to vacate the train car just in time before it exploded into smithereens. But his works were not done yet, not by a long shot, there were enemies waiting in Karnak and he must intercept them before more harms can be inflicted on innocent blood.

Who would have thought that their one simple train ride down to the Valley of the Kings would devolve into a terrorist attack with the cargo car of the train blew up to smithereens? Whatever happened to the days when one can safely travel up and down the country without fear of being attacked or worst kidnapped by some shady character?

For now, the duo Logan and Angie remain undaunted by recent events at the train station, they continue their journey into Karnak by bus, once arrived, the two took to hiking and arrived at the Hypostyle Hall of the complex, following the compass and directioning of the hieroglyphs, Angie and Logan were coming towards a rather modest temple of Osiris.

Logan however noticed just how modest it was. All of the trip so far was him exploring majestic and yet mysterious temples, or tombs. This one was not as illustrious as the rest. In fact it was much smaller, and a lot more derelict like almost. "We sure this is the right place? I thought all the Gods had that 'mighty pristine temple' where they put all of their valuable stuff. This looks… Sad by comparison." Logan commented squinting at the place.

Angie seeing how the temple was not only smaller but a lot less expensive and lavish in terms of appearance was also taken aback by how it was built with only a grand statue of Osiris inside the hall of the temple. "Tell me about it usually the next pharaoh would try outdo his predecessor. In this case, trying to make their temple or palaces grander." She explains as they climbed the stairs over a canal with lily pads and lotuses to decorate the place. Inside they would find columns of pillars made from alabaster stones, each of them holds hieroglyphs depicting the mythology of Seth and Osiris.

The hieroglyphs shows Osiris being betrayed and cut to pieces by his brother Set who then proceeds to toss his organs and body parts into the river. Then Osiris was put together by Anubis and revived briefly by Isis to conceive Horus. "Osiris was given a golden erection after his real one was eaten by crocodiles." Angie added to the texts of the hieroglyphs. Logan perhaps would be grossed out at this point.

Logan made a blank expression while he read this. Everything that he had just read sounded both extremely impossible or just painful to both hear and endure. "Uh…" Logan shuddered a bit realizing they brought a deity back to life for a short while just to conceive another. "What the fucking fuuuuck..." Logan had so many question on his head, and stuttered for a minute trying to get the right question out of his head. "S-so how does that even work? A golden what?" Logan rubbed the sides of his temples to figure out what he was just told.

"A literal...golden...erection. Prosthetic to the one he lost." Angie repeated what she just said feeling slightly awkward by what she learned and told to her boyfriend. She scratched the back of her head slowly at the awkward situation they found themselves in as they came to the statue of Osiris.

The two came to the statue of Osiris, and at the base of the statue, Logan and Angie found hieroglyphs that said "Only the Pharaoh may hold the divine right lay feet on the inner sanctum." She was perplexed by what the hieroglyphs said, but when Logan took a closer look at the statue of Pharaoh Thescalineces, he found something, an oval stone tablet on his hands.

"Hey Angie look at this, there's something on the guy's hand." The robotic timber wolf in disguise said with the curiosity of a toddler when he noticed a stone tablet inscribed with hieroglyphs on its surface.

"That's a Cartouche, a piece of tablet used for special documents. Wait a minute, I think we can detach it from the statue." Following her suggestion, Logan reached his right paw out to grab the cartouche piece, gently detaching the piece from its holster, when he flipped the cartouche tablet around, he found a circular socket on the back, there were also clockworks inside, this meant that it can be rotated, but where would it fit? He wondered.

"Oh boy. Its one of those things then. It's a puzzle Angie. Lets just hope it's an easy one since I'm more of ask around for evidence puzzle kinda of guy." Logan looked back into the socket, and tapped a foot on the ground repeatedly while he thought for an answer to this.

Angie looked around and to her surprise, the obelisk had a socket and frame similar to the shape of the cartouche, she awed in the revelation and directed Logan to attach the cartouche piece into place.

Logan made a slightly embarrassed chuckle as he looked to the lock. "Well look at you with the keen eye. Even my robot eyes didn't pick that up." Logan admitted. He however walked over to the obelisk, and then placed the cartouche on it. He fiddled around with it and turned it slightly to make sure the puzzle was done correctly.

Once the cartouche tablet was in place, stone cracks can be heard, and the floor around the obelisk suddenly turned out to be an elevator with circular design descended down into the underground chambers with Logan and Angie still on it. "Well what do you know. A secret elevator for the place...I gotta rewrite history books about this one pharaoh when I get back." She shuddered a bit at the thought however, finding herself increasingly uneased by how out of place the structural design and working mechanism of the place is. She then turned to Logan and approached him. "You know Logan maybe I should think that the place could be booby trapped." She said shyly for once, feeling herself vulnerable for once inside what should have been familiar ground for her.

Logan's brow raised noticing this about Angie. Normally she was in control of the situations while Logan clearly lost control of a lot, but seeing her now in an unfamiliar situation like this gave Logan a reason to grow concern.

Once they have reached the lower floors, Angie knew that their exploration was picking up pace, the two then continue forward, passing by various storage rooms and hallways with hieroglyphs and illustrations of Thescalineces activities. Logan and Angie read the hieroglyphs attentively, the story began to unveil, detailing some of the motivations behind the Pharaoh's fetish for secret compartments.

"In the 5th year of his rule, Thescalineces felt the presence of the enemy of all mortals. An intruder broke into the royal archive and attempted to destroy the precious archive. But he was intercepted by a brave guard, the intruder fled, and attempted to escape, but was slain by his elite bodyguards. Convinced that he can no longer entrusted the safety of the royal archive of the palace. Pharaoh Thescalineces decreed the construction of secret archives in all current and future projects under his reign until he passes on to the next life."

Angie was perplexed by the writing of the wall that she has deciphered to Logan, "Sounds like the Pharaoh might have commissioned a special group to protect his history, sounds like something trouble was going on back in his day." Angie commented to the history written on the wall as she began to walk up a bit more. The additional hieroglyphic on the wall then showed them a depiction of Anubis standing over a group Jackal like warriors clad in space age armor like the two statues found at the tomb's entrance. The warriors were standing at attention looking at him in their hands were spears and shields some were even seen carrying axes and khopesh. "Look at that Logan those are the same armor suits like the statues at the tomb." She pointed out to Logan.

Logan viewed the pictures himself. He tilted his head, and thought the space aged armor was once again odd. "What's with the sci-fi guys right here though?" Logan pointed to them, and squinted at Anubis. "See this guy isn't even in the armor. He's exactly like the Ewegyptian stereotypical design." Logan then hummed to himself "walk like an Ewegyptian" by the Bengals.

Angie nodded looking up at the hieroglyphic once again, there was something not right with it for her. "Come on maybe we'll find some explanations deeper inside this place." She said to him before resuming exploration. As they were going through the place, the hieroglyphs began to reveal more depictions of Anubis conducting battles with other deities however. There was one depiction of him battling with Ares, the Growleek God of War with the help of Ra by his side. Behind him were legions of his jackal warriors following him into battles.

Logan went up to this particular image. He glanced over at it with his eyes, but stopped following Angie as his sight was caught on the images he was seeing now. He raised an index finger to the hieroglyph of Ares, and the back at Anubis. He repeated the process while the gears in his head began turning. The hud he had was not there this time to guide him however, something he was thankful for, but even he knew the design of Ares was way off compared to Anubis's "Okay wait. That's not right. This guy right here, " bicep" doesn't look at all like Anubis. Or even Ewegyptian. Greek? Roman? He looks centaurian, or legion like." Logan shrugged. Angie knew him long enough though to know some knowledge of history was from movies he watched. One of which was Jason and the Argrowlnauts, and another Clash of the Titans.

"That's impossible, how come this has never been recorded before in any mythology? You know what, never mind let's just keep moving but I better update my journal about this." She sighed out feeling frustrated by how the place is full of unfamiliar content to her and she was utterly helpless in the situation. Soon enough they would soon arrive at their next puzzle.

Logan saw Angie's growing frustration and winced slightly. He didn't know either in what ways to help out besides document everything in his brain, and take pictures. It was a small sacrifice making Logan give up part of his morality, and embracing his robotic self, but to prove angie right, and possibly re-write history was more important. "Hey. At least we're making new discoveries together. This is crazy though." Logan however stopped, and tilted his head at this puzzle.

They came to a room with limestone floor and on four corners of the room, there were vents to filter sands through, but where would the sand come from? That was the question for this particular room, there were also two statues, one was the statue of Horus and the other was the statue of the Pharaoh, a lion with lavish a crown and decorations. "This room doesn't seem to have much purpose to itself. Wish I know what the hell does this room do." Angie commented as she began look around the four corners of the sanctum they were in.

Logan walked around the room and around the statues. He admired their height, and construction despite being ancient, but he did however see the vents. He dug a finger into it and saw just a minute amount of sand grains. He huffed and looked back at the vent itself."So Angie, what do you think this room would do? Bury us alive?" Logan asked, keeping his sarcastic nature to lighten the mood in the dark sanctum.

"Like I said Logan, no, there are no such things as booby traps like in the movie." She scolded him like a little toddler who keeps repeating annoying questions over and over again. Angie took time to study the room and found an hourglass sitting on the idly by on a pedestal made of limestone, on the pedestal, a hint was inscribed for users to read and understand the puzzle.

"The passage of time is universal. But only one can stand against the endless march of time." This was an easy puzzle, she knew right away to bring the hourglass to the palms of Horus and attached it in place, the statue of Horus held the hourglass tight and flipped it down, this activated a mechanism from the level above them, sand began to drain, the streams of golden sand fell downward into the vents and a trapdoor was unlocked led them up a stairway.

Logan began to clap while still managing to have a confused look on his face. "I'm never going to understand the mechanics behind the walls that run these ancient places. I think that's better left unchecked." Logan then went with Angie to the opening from the trap door. "Well there might not be booby traps, but there are puzzles." he chuckled.

Logan and Angie eventually came up to a overwatch platform, beneath them was a huge game of Senat completes with full ten pieces the colored ones were for them to play but the bland pieces were control by an unknown entity or mechanism to make any intruders lose the game, each pieces has its own color, green, red, blue and yellow and tan.

They were not in a position to move the pieces themselves, but it seemed like they can command the pieces to move into positions. On the platform, Angie saw four sticks with white and black surfaces mounted on the wall in front of her. Behind her, Logan saw an overview map of the board and its piece positions, "Angie look, I think we can use this to move the pieces around."

"You're right Logan, they're too big for us to push individually but we can use these sticks to command them. I just hope it can still works after all those Millennials." She paid close attention to the quartet of sticks on the instrument, the fear of having an all black throw was getting to her but still she rows it and to her surprise, she got herself a 3 white to 1 black stroke.

This made the red chess piece moved from its position and into the middle of the board, it was as if the ancient mammals had created a primitive but wildly sophisticated command system to control the chess pieces. Bewildered by the control scheme, Angie continued to play the game with Logan's help, moving the pieces into positions indicated on the map. However, other pieces started to move, apparently all on their own without any input whatsoever. This began to concern both Angie and Logan as they were trying to get their pieces cross over to the next life before they are blocked.

Logan made an anxious groan watching the game. Part of him wanted to do a dramatic shielding of his eyes so he didn't have to look at them losing, but he did want to see Angie win this. He made a silent cheer for her while he memorized the mapping and sticks. "Uhhh I really hope I'm doing this right. Black- no white? Where?" Logan squinted at the massive board below and bit his lip.

Angie was overseeing the chessboard and she saw that one of their chess piece was being chased by a bland piece as it was inching closer to the possible death tile. "We need four white surfaces. Four more white surfaces." She repeated to him frantically. If she could, she would bite her claws right now out of anxious overseeing of the game that was wracking their nerves. She would then pray in her mind that Logan can somehow turn up the magic number she needs to win.

Logan counted and calculated in his mind the game. Already he felt a headache grow on him playing a game he barely knew anything of, and a buildup of stress in his body just playing the game, and then have all of the pressure directed on him. Alot was against him, and he wasn't know to do well in stressful situations. Angie even heard him swear repeatedly under his breath which was uncommon for him to do, but now that he was moving the pieces into position he was swearing like a drunken irishman. His face had an intense glare at the board below while she also saw some of his liquid metal showing patches of silver. True to Alfred's words the disguise only worked if the user is under a good state of mind. However, ignoring this he continued moving the pieces into their positions.

With his stroke, came four white faces that Angie needs, she then hopped on the platform for the leading blue piece, the corresponding chess piece would immediately move its way towards the finish line like ordered, as this happened, a massive creaking sound can be heard as the other entity's pieces disappeared into sand grains and the remaining 'Player' chess pieces moved into assigned tiles automatically.

Eventually, once all pieces are in place, a bridgehead was drawn from the platform and the room on the other side. The two bridgeheads came together, forming a catwalk for the two to cross. Logan nearly fainted realizing they'd won, but he maintained his emotions."You know. That was one really damn intense puzzle. I'm never playing another game of chest again." Logan groaned and massaged the side of his aching head.

He looked back at the chessboard and he raised a brow "How does this ancient as Hell giant board even work without electricity. We were using sticks and levers, and they move. The Hell? And how can they move those chess pieces by playing for the supposed 'AI' faction? It's incredible." Logan's bewilderment was shared with Angie, the two of them felt curious at just how can the ancient people devised such mechanism.

"I'm not sure how but I think I'm going to dissect this place when I'm done here." They pushed forward, into the room in front of them, inside, there was no gold, no loots or wealth of the Pharaohs, simply provisions such as food, water pots and bare necessities for war.

"Look at this place, they were using it as a supply depot for war, just like the one we found in the tomb." Angie awe and shocked at how the room was used, instead of burying treasure or the mummy of Pharaoh, somebody thought it was a bright idea to use it as a supply depot.

Logan nodded as well, and made a memory back to the red necks shack, or rather now a bunker. "Yeah and I thought that Hunter and Canyon were ready for a post apocalyptic wasteland. Who ever these were were some strong armed lead bellied survivors." Logan stated while he moved about the room. However, he was unaware of where he was stepping.

"Unbelievable, you know if I were an architect maybe I would..." Logan accidentally steps on something, a floor tile that was hollowed, the timber wolf glanced downward and found a piece of tile with Demotic writing, used only by the common folks of Ewegypt. "'My lord, what you demand of me is here.' Who wrote this anyway?" He pondered and dug up the tile floor, underneath, were the missing pages of the book they discovered back in the Vault. Seeing these he made an excited tail wag, and looked back at Angie wide eyed. "ANGIE! I think I found the pages! Look!" he shouted.

"Incredible! Maybe now I can determine what this book is about after all." Angie said, she clipped the pages inside the book and put them back into her backpack, just in time for them to exit the Temple of Osiris. But once outside, the two were greeted with a sight, unexpected to archeologist, a company of armed mammals, all in red uniforms and masks, they surrounded the temple and held Logan and Angie hostages there.

"Drop the book and its pages on the ground! You are surrounded, there is no escape. Surrender now and you will be treated with respect. We will provide food, clothing, water and shelter for you!" One of them, a leader spoke on his boom mike. Logan and Angie were hiding behind a collapsed pillar, trying to figure out their exit strategy that doesn't involve them dead.

Logan behind the pillar put his hands over his head, and didn't dare peek his head out to see his hostage takers. He shook however slightly. "Okay. I can't tell if these are the local police, or someone else! I don't know!" Logan punched the ground in frustration. "I could take them all out easily, but I don't want to. My robot body is too powerful. I mean I have freaking laser claws! This is just going to lead us into more trouble!" Logan bit his lip. Despite being trapped by an army he was trapped by his own body. Now he was a weapon in one way or another.

"Logan, it doesn't matter, those guys don't look like they're the cops or whatever they all dress in red! That's the color of the fricking Grand Old Pigs party for crying out loud." She scoffed at his hesitation while hiding behind some pillars with him waiting for a miracle to save them both.

"You have 20 seconds to comply!" Said the cult leader as he began to narrate his term of surrender to them. But while leader of these cultists went on and on about conditions and terms, he failed to notice one of his men was killed. On the roof of the Hypostyle Hall, the sharpshooter was slain, a Khopesh blade carved out his stomach, his corpse lay there, bathing in his own blood.

A silhouette began to rise up from the position of the marksman, his face was blackened by the sun, but his shadow can tell Angie and Logan that he was a Jackal, his arms were holding a compound bow and the arrow was readied. He fired his first shot at the leader, the arrow flew gracefully in the air, impaling the leader in his neck, dropping the rogue lion in an instance, the cultists quickly turned their attention to mysterious shooter and let loose a hail of bullets.

The nomadic Jackal on the overlooking perch return the favor with some of his arrow. Taking advantage of the situation, Logan and Angie made a mad dash out of the temple and into the footpath, some of the cultists tried to stop them only to be met with a terracotta grenade exploding behind them and sending them flying sky-high. Seeing the bow and arrows to be too slow for the situation he quickly draws out his sword, a Xiphos and hopped off the rooftop and rushed through their lines, slaying the cultists in one charge that saw his blade tears through their guts.

"It's that nomad again! Why is he helping us now!?" Angie's confusion rises to new height as she witness the bloody carnage that was on display before her eyes, one of the cultists fired a shot at point blank at the nomadic Jackal and both Angie and Logan can see that he was bleeding, red droplets of blood drip out of the flesh wound but the cultist was disturbed by how the nomad remained unfazed by the wound but proceed to slash him with the Xiphos sword across his face.

Logan seeing the carnage shook his head. "Hey this might be a hunch, but I don't think he's helping us for the right reason if at all! In fact, i think once he's done clearing out our 'friends' he's going to do the same to us!" Logan suddenly shouted. Logan grabbed his pistol from his left side, and ran with Angie not wanting to see if his predictions were true.

As the fighting dies down the nomadic jackal quickly gives chase and ran after Angie and Logan into the Hypostyle Hall. He was exceptionally fast, perhaps ignoring his own wound to hunt them down without mercy. His agile form quickly have him pouncing on Logan's back and pushed him down on the ground then uses his back as a launchpad to go for Angie. "Give me the pages!" He snarled out in fury, but a controlled and focus fury to be exact.

Logan realized however that the jackal was after Angie. Logan almost gave into instinct to bite the attacker, but yelled in protective rage as he grabbed the jackal's ankles causing the attacker to fall to the ground on his chest. Something however was surprising about Logan's strength. "NO YOU DON'T!" Logan then looked back up at Angie while he sued his agility to get to his feet again. "RUN! DON'T STOP I'LL HOLD HIM OFF!" Logan shouted at Angie. THough even she wasn't sure if he would make it out of this one, or if this was his final sacrifice. Regardless Logan took his stand.

"This is not your battle robot!" The jackal swung his leg at Logan's waist and kick him on his side before delivering a sommerset at Logan's face, sending him flying into the columns of ancient pillars. "Mummify!" the jackal growled in an otherworldly voice, it was almost demonic to the ears, Logan was struck by a collection of whooshing Mummy bandages that tied his body up. "Give me the pages and I'll let you two go." Said the jackal as he approached and frightened and petrified Angie. In her fear she panicked and fired her weapon at the jackal's abdomen, causing him to flinch in surprise and pain of the bullet's impact.

The jackal however heard a loud tearing sound. When he looked back at where Logan was tied up he was gone from sight. However, his ears picked up a machine like hiss followed by a warm mechanical hum. His sight was caught onto a glowing in the room that was caught on the floors, and the walls. The light then moved out from behind a pillar. Logan, still in his flesh based disguise had his laser claws burning red and extended outwards, but his eye were beaming mad at the jackal. "Get away from her you BASTARD!" Logan shouted showing a sudden boost of bravery making his stance more combative.

The jackal snapped his fingers and quickly summons a portal under Logan's feet, once the cyber wolf looked down he would see that he was being tugged at by countless ghostly mummified hands from a void that might lead to the underworld if the visual appearance is anything to go by. "I am tired of your stubbornness, just give me the pages and I will let you two leave." He growled at them before eyeing Angie once again approaching her with his Xiphos sheathed.

"Who are you?" She shivered, backing herself into a dead end by a wall showcasing Ramses II during the battle of Kadesh.

"He-who-watches-the dead and Patron of the passing." The jackal replies and she shuddered more with her ears now droopy at the sight of the jackal, his bared abdomen was bleeding and yet he paid no attention to the wounds that would be fatal to everyone else.

Logan in the meantime flailed around with the undead ghostly arms. He was experiencing a slew of emotions that were all telling him different things, and to react differently to the current crazy situation at hand. He was now however directing those emotions at the jackal who was threatening his only lover. Logan made a long yell out as he brought the laser sabers to the ground to cut away at the arms strangling him cutting each of them away. In his emotion however his liquid metal disguise ran its course and began to feel the stress from his rage. First however he leaped forwards now out of the confines of the arms, and he struck the jackal's back with his laser claws while he began to turn silver again. "BACK AWAY FROM HER!" Logan yelled. He then spun himself around and delivered a kick to the jackal's side.

The nomad was struck hard on his side and grunted out in pain as he was thrown into the courtyard of the hall, falling on his back at the base of an obelisk before getting up to his feet. "I need only the pages of the book. Give it up and I'll let you two go. That's all I ask, but if you wish I will hurt you to take them!" He declared, brushing off the sand from his face as he approaches Logan to fight the robot wolf. The jackal then proceeds to unbuckle his belt, he threw his weapons aside and assume a hand to hand combat stance against Logan.

Logan then jumped down to face the jackal. However, he was keen on keeping the wrist laser claws activated continuously. As he beamed at the jackal though his liquid metal soaked back under his armor now showing whoever this was the "true" Logan. The red and black cyber wolf. He payed no attention to the jackal throwing his only weapons away. He only prepped his next move thanks to his police academy training.

His first move though was a sliding dash to the right, and then a leap in the air. He decided now was the time to use his robotic advantages combined with his police training. He then landed the front flip in a roll followed by him dashing to the attacker's right chest, stabbing him with his laser claws. "Not going to happen pal! Not if her job depends on it!" Logan didn't notice how minor the thing he was fighting for was. He instead targeted his attacker's shoulders giving them a strong armed punch.

Anubis dodged some of the punches by Logan as he flinched side-to-side as he then quickly duck down and grabbed Logan's arms and wrapped his legs around Logan's waists. He lifted Logan up from his lower body and impaled the sand floor behind him before scrambling to the back of Logan and punch the back of his head hard and fast while sitting on top of his rumps. "Give up now!" Anubis growled ferociously, snarling at Logan.

Logan groaned in pain. He made his own angered growl, but wasn't giving this fight up. "Why should I? So you can get the jump on her after you're done killing me? Never letting my guard down again since a certain ROBOT RAPIST!" Logan suddenly shouted as he threw the combatant off of himself. He then scrambled back to his feet and slid side to side to confuse his attacker with his quick back and forth strafes.

Logan then swung his right arm downwards striking the adversary's chest followed by using his own momentum to swing his body in a circle with his foot in the air extended far. The foot struck the jackal on the side of his head. One he brought his two feet to the ground Logan made a quick pant to get his breath back to himself. He turned his head back to look at his opponent followed by him spinning around, and doing a drop kick into the jackal's chest to knock him to his back.

The nomadic jackal grunted out being struck by the attacks he fell down on the ground unconscious, though not before he was able to grab onto Logan's leg and pulled him down. He coughed out weakly as he tries to fight Logan and prolong the battle, but his strength was weakened by this point and he was forced to lie down quietly, releasing his grip on Logan's feet. Angie quickly ran up to Logan's back and held him up from the jackal. "Are you okay Logan?" She panted out looking at his body which was mostly unscathed.

Logan however panted and heaved out breaths. He however looked down at himself after retracting his laser claws. He relied he was out of his disguise, and he slumped at bit. He looked over Angie's body, and the hud he had listed her as having severe stress, and frightened motions. Logan went up to her, and nodded. "I'm not the one you should be worried about. What about you? Did that creep… Touch you?... Hurt you? Are you fine?" Logan gulped anxious for her answer.

Angie shook her head at his questions though clearly she was creeped out by the battle just as he was. "No he didn't seem to intend to hurt me. But...how come he has those...powers?" She glanced back at the jackal still frightened even by his unconscious form. "Let's get out of here before he wakes up." She hastens him not wanting to realize what she has already suspected.

Logan saw her face. The way she pondered her suspicions. He shook his head looking back at the unconscious jackal now realizing just what happened, and the fact his attacker had powers of his own. Almost divine like. "Alright. I don't want to be wrapped in mummy toilet paper again. Let get the hell out of here." Logan commented and made his liquid metal recover his metal body. He took Angie's hand and led her out of the place with a great haste of urgency. Some that may have caused her to have trouble keeping up with his new found agility.


	4. Chapter 4: Betrayal

Chapter 4: Betrayal

Their journey back has been quiet, too quiet. Not a single attempt by the cultists to stop them or even attempted to ambush them and retrieve the book and its content. For Logan and Angie, it was a welcoming change of pace, for once, they're not being chased by gun toting maniacs, and so they made their way back Martin's camp without further incidents or trouble. Considering the fact that night has fallen and they need shelter fast, both Logan and Angie felt that there was something going aloof that they did not see, but they couldn't quite put their fingers on it.

Logan for one was perplexed extremely by multiple things, and events that were all happening. He's already known to be easily confused, but now seeing Angie, usually his reason, and the individual he follows for reason, was now confused as well got him a massive sense of worry. The men dressed in red, the mysterious jackal who could use some sort of what Logan assumed voodoo, or witchcraft to cast spells, and now the fact Angie had seen Logan's robotic powers, or at least some of them. A Lot of what he was thinking of was her thoughts on his mechanization, and his abnormality.

Once they've returned to Lycopolis and back to their hotel room, Angie fell down on her bed exhaustively with the book of prophecy and its pages in hand, she began to put the pages back to their torned roots to make the book's content readable for the first time. "Logan, back there I shot the guys 3 times and one of the gunmen shot him into his side but he doesn't seem to be affected by the wounds at all. What do you think of that?" She asked him and turned to face him expectantly and hopeful that he could at least shed some light on the mystery.

Unfortunately for her Logan shook his head. "I-I don't know. I stabbed him. With my laser things. He still didn't go down. Not until I had to beat him down. And I've never done that before! Never!" Logan looked a bit shaken. He had combat training, and fight knowledge, but he'd expected it to be used more swiftly, and less brutish. Fighting the mystery jackal felt almost overpowering to him. He didn't like the power. It made him feel dangerous. Like a thug almost. The same people he swore to stop being an officer. He sighed processing, and slumped down on the. "Well. Whoever he was brought out the worst in me that's for sure. I don't use those claws all the time for a very good reason." He commented on himself.

Angie hummed and slumped her head down a bit feeling rather uneasy by the thought of who the jackal might be. She began to open up on her thought about it. "You know he doesn't look like a normal jackal at all. In fact, he was sporting an all black fur, and there's no jackals in the world has that fur pattern." She then showed Logan some of the depictions of Anubis that they have seen for comparison, from a statue of him reclining on a pedestal to a grand statue inside the temple in the city where he is depicted standing on two legs. "I'm starting to think that this maybe Anubis, the very jackal god of the Dead." She concluded.

Logan when blank for a moment. The thought of him beating down an undead god made him both feel powerful and yet nervous. "O-oh... And I just kicked the guy's… The uh… God's ass in hand to hand combat…." Logan now more more nervous made a high pit fake laugh. "Boy. I'm really hoping he doesn't use his divine power to track me down and smite me. Oh God I'm a dead mammal." Logan's face then made a more nervous expression. He was beginning to realize that if that was Anubis then it would explain the dead face he always had. Even when furious.

True enough to his words, Anubis was not far behind them, by now he was on the streets of the city, walking under the cloak of a beggar, with his scepter morphed into a wooden cane and his form seems to hunch over.

He walked along the streets holding an empty rusted cup of coffee in his left hand. He lurched his head up a bit and saw the hotel they were staying in as he came closer towards it, but he was not the only one who was coming towards the hotel, as some black armored van were seen driving towards the hotel on the road, none of them have license plates and Anubis could sense calculating, unchecked evil and greed coming from the lead vehicle.

He quickly ditched his disguise inside an alleyway and threw off the hood, as he was passing over an old beggar with a cup of coffee like his own, Anubis tossed into the cup a slew of gold coins, earning the praises of the elderly he held up his fez hat and spoke a soft "Allahu Akhbar" to Anubis. The jackal promptly held up his right hand as a gesture of blessing to the old beggar. "Qad tubarik." He said before moving on.

Logan still in the room with Angie was too nervous to talk to her now. He eats as long as they were both slumped a bit in a sad way. He grabbed the remote and channel surfed in a rapid manner showing his nervousness. Mainly for criticisms on his robotic body, but now the fact he was having trouble coping. "You know. I should be taking this well. I mean i'm made of alien technology now, and Alfred is an alien as well." Logan's expression went blank again, but he looked at the TV screen not at all in a good state of mind. "So then why am I about to piss myself over a supposed god?" Logan hunched over a mess.

"I don't know Logan, but I think it's because the situation is testing my own sanity, just as much as yours." She then heard a knocking on the door and would then went out to open it and see who could that be. But once she opened the door an army of cultists grabbed her by her neck and tied her up before storming into the room to seize Logan as well. Following them closely was none other than Martin Hornskilt, he enters the room with two heavily armed bisons flanking him to protect him from harm.

Logan looked dazed, and confused. He didn't know what else to expect, but he looked at Hornskilt with an angered looked. "WHAT THE HELL!? I thought- Are you- Who- WHAT IS GOING ON?" Logan growled feeling helpless, and confused. He squirmed his shoulders up and down trying to untie himself. His tried to use his laser claws, but to no avail either. His wrists being bound didn't allow any free hand movement. He looked at Hornskilt dead in his eyes with that angered look again. "What the fuck man!? What are you doing?!" Logan questioned.

"Surprise motherfuckers. You helped me with my search a lot easier than I thought. I mean to think that you can outrun Anubis's grasps is amazing to say the least." The goat rubbed his hooves together as his minions put Angie and Logan on bed with each other, tied up and held at gunpoint. "Now than I think that both of you have a lot of questions in your tiny little minds right?" He cackles a bit before going back to exposition mode. "Me, working for them? Logan I've always been in their pocket since I started my career. And Angie? She was simply a convenient tool to make my job a lot easier. It's not personal, it's just business." He smugly boasted as he began to pop his bordeaux bottle in the hotel room. "Jealous? Of course not. Youngsters like you wouldn't find enjoyment in alcohol." He proudly boasted. Feeling disgusted by the betrayal, Angie spat out at him.

"So what exactly do you want with the book? I suppose that you want to find something of great value in this land and plunder its tomb." Martin chuckled, impressed by Angie's deduction, her skill has proven her to be his greatest apprentice yet.

"Clever girl Angela. What I am looking for, is an object of unfathomable value. The key to eternal life." Seemingly unimpressed by his motive, Logan shook his head around, tired and bored of Martin's rant of his scheme.

"Yeah, yeah. We get the picture. You want to obtain the secret recipe to eternal life so you can be youthful forever and dodge your ugly wrinkles. We got it." Angie giggled at Logan's snarky comment, only to be met with an angry Hornskilt throwing tantrums to protect his fragile ego.

"Be quiet!" He slammed his hoof on the table.

"Now then, where was I? Oh of course, I almost forgot about my friends here, how rude of me. We are the Brotherhood of Apep. Loyal followers and faithful's of Apep. Our mission is to bring down the complacency and arrogant treachery of the old gods and bring the world to the fold of Apep." Neither Logan nor Angie was convinced of Martin's words, for them, gods don't exist other than a figment of one's imagination and expectation of their faith, and Hornskilt was certainly a mad cultists figure hell bent on world domination to please his God-Complex. If the temper tantrum and smug face can be taken as indications.

Logan shook his head, and groaned. "Okay we get it. The ego driven, and intellectual bad guy won. He got the book, and we're tied up…" Logan closed his eyes tightly while not knowing what to expect from his snark again. After he closed his eyes he squirmed around once again."What the Hell? I can beat Anubis down, but I can't break Freaking ropes?" Logan looked to Angie to see if she had any ideas. To him she was the brains while he was more of the brawn.

Angie shook her head as she saw no way of untying herself even when she tries moving her hands around to break the rope and with the cultists so close to them, it was impossible to slip out of her binding up scathed. However, help was on its way. Standing on a roof across the streets was Anubis, he stood up right with his bow and arrow ready he took aim at one of the cultist. In his mouth, he was chanting a spell that slowly loosen them up from the rope's grip, the binding on Logan was falling off slowly but he could feel his arms free to move about again.

Logan looking at the guns of the cultist felt the effects. He squirm again, and felt himself suddenly loose. He whispered a confused "What the Hell" to himself, and nudged Angie not knowing what to expect next. He looked over at the guards ready to drive his burning hot laser claws into their chests.

But at that moment, an arrow struck the back of one gunmen next to Angie, causing him to fall down the floor. The hotel was quickly attacked by an army of armed populace rushing at the cultists like a storm of locusts slashing its way through their lines. The fighting was a savage affair of close quarter combat, hand-to-hand, melee struggle with only the finest warrior can live through.

Inside the hotel's room, Logan would see that their bindings have fallen off letting them free once again. It was his opportunity to strike back without hesitation at the captors.

Logan nearly roared out as he sprung from the bed. His attacker suddenly were in shock that the mad wolf somehow had laser protruding from his wrists. Before they could fire he sliced their weapons clean in half leaving a glowing hot molten orange color where he struck. After this he struck two of them in the chest impaling them with his lasers and nearly pinning them to the wall. He then had the laser exit their bodies as he then shivered. "Oh my God I'm a psycho!" Logan pulled out his pistol and death with the other by driving a non lethal shot to their thighs. "Stay down! Now!" Logan commanded.

The cultists likewise heeded his commands and the other dropped their weapons at an instance giving Angie a chance to throw a punch at Martin's face, knocking the goat off of his feet falling over himself, while Logan kept the guards down she grabbed the Book from Martin's hooves and began to run out. "I got the book, let's go!" Angie cried out, the both of them ran as fast as they can out of the room and through the hail of fire and chaos.

Once outside, some lone cultists attempted to stop them by cornering them into one place, only for them to be greeted by Logan's pistol shots to their hearts, dropping in an instance. "Come on!" He pushed for Angie to run as fast as she could, as they make their way down to the chaotic streets where fighting has erupted into full scale riot, a lion pounced on one of the cultist and stomped his head under the predator's foot, he extends a hand towards them, "Come with us, you will be protected if you come with us." He said with as much conviction he can muster to the two young wolves.

"Where will you take us?" Angie asked with apprehension.

"To the temple on the hill nearby, now come on!" The camel hastens them, and so the two began to run with the camel back to the rally point as the tribal fighters began to retreat from the hotel, the streets were now battlegrounds with Cultists clashing with Anubis's followers, much to Logan's surprise and possible shock is that how well armed the populace of Lycopolis was, from merchants to shopkeepers, everyone has a weapon. Battle axe, Khopesh, spears, javelin, slingers and more. Crude and archaic weapons used against modern firearms at close quarters and well placed kill boxes. "Stay close and stay low, the engagements here can get pretty hairy sometimes." The lion instructed to Logan and Angie as he began to take point leading them away towards the intersection with a spear in hand.

Logan listened to the lion very carefully. He knew just from seeing ballistics tests how crippling bullets, and weaponry can be on weapons. He kept his stance low, but fast. He didn't know who to trust, but was now looking for anyone now for a friendly hand. All this action however made him forget to cover Angie. Continued with the tactical withdrawal.

But while the tactical withdrawal was being conducted, a lone marksman of the Brotherhood managed to get a shot at Angie. The bullet ruptured through her waist, rippled its way out on her front. This causes her to fall down on the streets coughing some blood, she gurgled up as a cultist truck drove towards them intending to run them over. The lion quickly threw his spear at the truck's grille, much to Logan's amazement, the power of the spear and his throw was so powerful, that it twists the vehicle's engine block and the momentum of the spear propels the vehicle flying backwards.

Logan for a split second felt a cold chill go across his body, and a crippling sense of nausea amount in his body. He couldn't take his eyes off of the sight no matter how hard he tried. It was horrifying to him to see his only lover, and the only one he ever wanted struck down in such a cruel manner. The world then began moving again while everything around Logan seemed muted and silenced. Nothing else mattered, but Angie at that point. Not even following along with the withdrawal. Instead he dashed over to her and picked her bleeding body up in his arms while his emotions began to pour over Logan making him a wrecked mess of a wolf. He caressed her tightly shielding her from the battle around them " SHIT! FUCK! NO! ANGIEEE!" Logan screamed out, he rushed over to provide some first aid with the lion's assistance.

The Jackal on overwatch managed to return the favor by firing an arrow that killed the shooter. Then the jackal jumped down to assess the wounds on Angie. He pulled off his hood and mask, showing his true face, the nomadic black jackal named Ahmad or rather, Anubis. "She's hit in the waist, crippling shot. We need to take her to the temple for full medical treatment, for now, hold her blood and cauterize the bullet to minimize the danger pose by the wound."

Anubis instructed, gently walking Logan and the lion through the treatment, step by step. Logan through the treatment pulled the bullet out of her wound, and extended one of his burning hot claws. He winced though knowing this was going to hurt him more than her.

"I'm sorry. Bite down on something… Please!" he gently pressed down the laser over her wound singing and cooking her flesh slightly enough just to cauterize, but the process really took the hit on Logan more. Once that was done and Angie was stabilized, they took her back to the temple where proper treatment can be applied.

Inside the temple's clinical wing, Angie pant, gasped and moan as her wound began to force its pain up her body, "Come on Angie, hold on! SOMEBODY GET ME A GODDAMN DOCTOR NOW!" Logan growled at the mammals around him, and to his surprise, the black Jackal who attacked them first was the one to respond. "Open her dressings." He instructed with dull, commanding tone, in his paw, he held a vial of herbal medicine.

"What? Are you crazy? I-I can't Th-that's privacy! I d-don't even-" Logan retorted stammering, finding it hard to trust such an instruction. He was an emotionally wrecked mess however. A very fragile state where trust was hard, and the good in anyone was hard to see. Logan felt shrouded by a black haze blocking his proper thoughts, and logic. It wasn't a pretty sight to watch as it was him in a stage of critical grief.

"Do you want her to live?" Ahmad asked, feeling himself without support, he undresses Angie's bandages and let Ahmad pour the herbal medicine into her wound, the Jackal then rubbed his paw on the bleeding opening to and in his mouth, he chanted in the ancient language of Coptic, one that Logan cannot quite understand yet. "Amun-Ra, the lord and father of all, grant me the strength to heal this wound. Grant me the strength to save this soul. Amun-Ra, lord and father of all, guide my hands to save this mortal's life."

To Logan's amazement and bewildered expression, and to none of the tribe's surprise, Angie's wound healed miraculously, with the bleeding stop and her flesh began to mend together as whole once again. "Let her rest here, tend to her on an hourly basis, by dawn, she will fully recover." Logan nodded in awe tending to Angie as instructed. "I will be back after I clean up some inconveniences on the streets, Anhur stay and protect them, not a single cultist is allowed to enter this place." The jackal instructed carefully and his lion compatriot nodded to him and ordered the priests and guards inside the temple to lock the door as Anubis was exiting the place.

Logan still a wreck looked down at Angie. Some tears poured out his eyes. He felt exhausted by his emotional turmoil, and the stress of the street war and conflict, but now as he watched over Angie he felt like her guardian, or the only one protecting her. He slouched forwards, and held his hands together just hopeful she might respond. He even forgot for a second his lost body, and robot self.

Some of the doctors and priests inside the clinical wing began to pick up her pulse and breathing, the fennec fox doctor put his ear on her chest and listen closely to her heart beat. He counted a nominally acceptable pace. However, it was still concerning that she has yet to wake up. Perhaps it is due to the fact that the shock and trauma of the bullet may have gave her a nasty shock that kept her unconscious far longer than he likes. "She'll be fine, the trauma and shock is only slightly worse than usual considering the range of the weapon and caliber it employs." Said the fennec fox doctor.

"That means you won't have to worry about her walking to the Underworld too soon." Anhur added while keeping watch over the temple's entrances. Anubis was lost in the chaotic fighting in the streets nearby, though by now the deities could sense the high time of the chaos has died down somewhat. "Look, I can see Anubis returning!" Anhur exclaims pointing out at the sight of Anubis running up the stairs of the temple once again, the guards open its doors and let the jackal inside as he made his way back to Logan and Angie.

Logan saw Anubis coming back, and he stood up cautiously while back up to a far wall to distance himself remembering what he had done in their last confrontation. Logan closed his eyes tightly awaiting the worst. "If this is about beating you down before I didn't know who you were, or if you were trying to hurt my girlfriend. Okay? You scared us both, and I was trying to help her…" Logan held his head up and gulped. "So if you're going to kill me just do it fast…" Logan then awaited for the worst to come.

"That's the least of my concerns." Anubis calmly replied as he picked up the Book of Prophecy from the table next to the sick bed and opens its cover, examining the recovered pages that have been mended into the book. "I don't need to kill you as you are a pawn in their game. Now that you have escaped with the Book of Prophecy, I see no need in ending your life and feed your souls to Ammut." Said Anubis as he closed the book and looked down at Logan.

Logan looked at Anubis still petrified. He had a confused look as well. "I don't- I don't know what an Ammut is. I don't even know what's going on, but it doesn't help me with the fact you were gunning to kill us." Logan moved away from the wall with a frown on his face. He slumped down in a chair on Angie's right refusing to leave her side even if the deity who attacked them was currently standing there. Instead Logan held Angie's hand and gently massaged it in a tender manner feeling the most solemn he's felt in years. "I think this vacation was a bad idea for the two of us…" As he said this though the disguise once again began wearing off as Logan's emotions were in an emotional imbalance. Patches of smooth shiny silver appeared again over his body showing again who he really was now.

Anubis sighed out rubbing his temple speaking to himself for a moment, apparently he was frowning at something. "Neith, must you put their fate into my matters?" He complained before finally look at Logan. "I do not intend to kill you first and foremost, killing is a simple task any fool could conduct, but mercy is the sign of wisdom only a few could understand." He clears his throat before walking to Logan's side, never seem to mind the fact that Logan's appearance was out of place so much so that others were looking at him with curiosity. "Logan, come with me to my quarter, I need to do some researches with your help there." He said calmly.

Logan made a shocked look to Anubis. He stammered for a moment while the silver liquid faded under his armor."B-but Angie! I don't want to leave her. She need me right now." Logan made a sad look while he watched over Angie.

Anubis understandably placed his hand on Logan's shoulder sending a warm sensation through his body as the jackal calmly reassure Logan's concern. "She will be fine Logan, calm yourself first and foremost, with Anhur protecting her, no one will be able to lay their paws or hooves on her without dying a gruesome death." He said he then turned his back on Logan and walked away from the clinical wing, strangely enough Logan can see that there was a trail of him on the floor, footprints with strange residual energies.

Logan made a short hum to himself watching Anubis walk away. He looked back to Angie however, and sniffled in. He then made a shaken emotionally distraught sigh out, and planted a kiss on her forehead. He then lifted himself up slowly, and stood up. "Stay safe for me Angie…" He said in a solemn tone

He then followed behind the jackal deity closely behind, but had a more frightened look on his face now gazing at the immortal. "I've have been through rapist robot aliens, an obese slightly perverted and anger issued polar bear, redneck rage, police training, a new body, a raging mad trucker girl, and a vacation to Ewegypt that feels less like i'm relaxing and more like I'm being tortured. And then suddenly I'm dealing with Gods?" Logan shook his confused head feeling his head split in an aching headache. "I'm sorry. It's been a Hell of a road for me, and my only lover was just injured. You must be getting tired of me by now." Logan admitted.

Anubis sighed out at Logan as he led the robot wolf into his personal quarter, Logan would see a spacious office with a single bed, master size, next to a wooden desk with some papyrus papers on it, on the left corner of the room there was a cabinet with a glass doors.

Logan still with a blank expression went to lay down on the bed to ease his stress. He felt some slight comfort feeling a bit of reassurance of Anubis. He looked around the room, but seeing the papyrus paper made him think slightly not recognizing them as normal white paper like the ones back home. He looked over to Anubis however still saddened wondering why he was here. He seemed lost. "So. What do I do? Do I do anything at all? Or is this therapy?" Logan asked somewhat curious.

"Think of it as therapy and research session. Lay down on the bed." Anubis then opened the cabinet and took out what appeared to be a vial for containing chemical or substance of interests, and on the other hand a syringe ready to work. "You mentioned rapist robot alien. Is that Alice you were talking about?" He asked as he sat down on the bed in front of Logan with the syringe being prepared.

Logan nodded before he saw the syringe. However, when he saw the syringe he sat up with a wide eyed expression shocked. "Uhhh yeah. Her name was Alice. I don't know how you know this." Logan wasn't speaking into Anubis's eyes, or even looking at his face as his eyes were caught and stuck on the massive needle. "What's the needle for?..." Logan gulped.

"Simple I am a deity I have the power of clairvoyance and see others past present and future. So I know what happened to each person of interest. The needle is what the research is about, a sample of your Nanites from its source and you have earned my undying commitment to protect you and Angie." He replied as he began to go over Logan's body length and examine his form carefully.

Logan pointed at the needle with a shaking hand, and an even shakier pointed finger. "Okay, but where is that going. Look I'll bleed dry for Angie. She's my best friend, and my only passion, but uhhh where is that going man?..." Logan asked with a squeamish attitude. So much so he went in a sitting fetal position by bringing his knees close to his chest. It was even made worse by Anubis's gaze at Logan's robotic body.

"Simple, your testicles where you Nanites are produced and are most fresh." Anubis nonchalantly replied, expecting him to faint in fear and shock. "At least my bandages can make your wound heal faster before you can say anything to object." He advertised to Logan and holds the needle closer to his crotch.

Logan's eyes both rolled to the back of his head seeing the needle get close to his delicate testicles. He fainted shortly after and he slumped backward laying on a pillow signifying that he had gone into emotional overload by this point. Thankfully he wasn't awake to argue more with the deity, but the double edged sword was Anubis didn't know when Logan would get up. He was free however to do as he pleased to Logan's body. Of course when he would get up all that could be expected was more emotional distress from Logan. Now however he was passed out in a rock like state.

"Well that was to be expected." Anubis then nonchalantly proceeds to run his free hand on Logan's crotch feeling the bulge of his testicle and penis. Eventually the deity himself found the switch to unlock the plate, he then pressed on the locks on both sides of his thighs, then the plate fell off, showing Logan's testicles and Penis. The jackal took a few minutes marveling at the sight of Logan's testicles, how it was covered in a black layer of latex and nano carbon that has a texture of hexagons. He then poke his needle into the layer of protection. The needle's tip pierced through Logan's protective layer and Anubis gently extract a portion of the Nanites from Logan's reproduction organ then fill the vial up with it. He didn't forget to apply his healing technique on the spot where the needle was struck. "There you go much better."

Despite this though Logan's legs were brought together in a shaking pained fashion while he made a pained whimper. His head arched backwards onto the pillow, and his legs shook. Despite being asleep he felt the sharp agonizing pain deep within one on his testical causing him to grit his teeth together intensely, and for his eyes to close intensely tight. Thankfully for Anubis's sake he was still asleep, and would possibly feel very sore after he would wake up. All the emotionally distressed wolf could do now was sleep, and let the world pass by as he rested. It was possibly for the best Anubis return Logan's crotch plate, or give me some kind of garment to give him some respect to privacy.

Anubis would then place the vial into a safekeeping inside his office, then he returned to Logan reattaching the crotch plate back onto his body and put the sheet on him again to pay his respect before walking out to check on Angie again. Though at this point, Anubis would have other concerns for his people as the battle is over and the dust has settled.

Logan though in the meantime felt the pain in his testicles slowly subside to the point his unconscious self wouldn't feel the pain. He laid down more comfortably on the pillow, and rubbed it slightly with his head while he gripped the sheet on his body tightly. He however never stopped thinking of Angie, and even his dreams wouldn't let him take a break from her. He slept the night away in an unrestful sleep while the night passed by without him.


	5. Chapter 5: Book of Prophecy

Chapter 5: Book of Prophecy

As the night went by without trouble had gone by, for Angie at least, she slept soundly in the medical tent with the other wounded, Logan though rested the night in a separate room unfortunately. As much as he wanted to stay by her side Anubis had brought him to a different room away from her. He slept alone, and somewhat lonely. While Angie herself was deep in her slumber, funerals were being conducted for the dead, in total, Anubis counted about 69 dead and 70 more wounded. A very grim deed to complete.

The sight of young, able bodied men died on the battlefield took a heavy toll on the hearts of their families and of course, the city's patron, Anubis, days ago, he had feared that he would be responsible for the death of so many brave men, the subsequent engagement has confirmed the bone chilling nightmare that kept him from his bed. He had never wished to drag the people, whom he loves like brothers and sisters, into battles they had never been trained to fight.

The burden to atone for their death was on his shoulders. For the whole night, Anubis mummified their remains with the help of the trained specialists in the tribe, their wooden sarcophaguses were filled and buried in hastily prepared sites with crosses decorated with Horus effigies used to mark their positions.

And as he stood on the edge of the burial ground, sighing at the sight of the graves, he could not hold back his tears, for the first time in their memories, the pedestrians saw Ahmad weeping, consequently, they fell under an eerie silence as the night slowly turned to day. To see him collapse into tears was something they thought the stoic jackal would never do for all eternity.

They could not believe their own two eyes, some of the widows and mothers prayed that it was a mirage, but the sight was as clear the rising sun on the horizon, Anubis was weeping, his mournful voice confirmed their apprehension. One can see a mirage, but a mirage cannot emit the sound of solid objects or persons.

For Anubis, he felt sinful, it was as if the burden of Hephaestus's Anvil fell down on his shoulder and the hammer of guilt was pounding his guilty conscience hard. The onus was his to atone, there shall be no more reckless reinforcement attempts, no more blood bath which involves innocent, defenseless souls, he must fulfill his duty by himself.

As the morning sun rose on the horizon, Angie felt her wound has finally recovered and she has been resting the whole night, no longer tired or in need of slumber, she woke up and yawned, the female arctic wolf stretched herself and her first instinct was to find Logan, Anhur who has been guarding her all night then promptly lead her towards Anubis's office where she found Logan sleeping on the bed alone.

Angie closed in on Logan's ears, then screamed at the top of her lungs into his ears. "Logan! Logan! Wake up! You'll be late for work!" Logan whimpered and scampered when he heard the word "WORK". "Wh-wha-what! What time is it?" He woke up and whimpered only to find Angie up and well in front of his eyes. He couldn't hold back his excitement, he hugged her in a snug tight grip followed by him kissing her on top of her head repeatedly in possibly the happiest she's seen him in a while. A wave of relief poured over his body seeing Angie fine. "Okay, okay Logan, you can let go now! Before I'm dead due to asphyxiation!" She frantically asked Logan to let go, he then likewise let go of her before she's dead.

Logan cleared his throat while looking up at her still worried. The previous night she missed him go through near Hell to see her safe and then for his stress to strain his nerves."Sorry, Angie. How do you feel?" He asked, anxiously waiting to hear her confirmation on her well being.

"That's the thing Logan, I feel better already. Whoever was the doctor, he did a bang of job on fixing me up." Angie looked down at the wound where the bullet struck her, she pulled up her shirt a bit and found that the wound where the bullet struck by now was gone, fully mended without any problem remaining on it.

Logan felt his tail trying to wag as he sat on the bed, but he brought her in again for another hug only for a sharp pain to strike his groin. He yelped again this time more in pain as he looked down at his crotch confused. "The Hell?... D-did someone invite Delilah here? Why do my balls-... Never mind. I think I remember." Logan said in a less than confident manner as he yawned. He stood up from the bed and stretched his body out he yawned and scratched his head.

He looked down at himself, and saw he was still out of his disguise. He grunted and quickly got his liquid metal to reform over himself quickly. He couldn't find any real clothes that were of his personal style, or even liking so he quickly formed a tan long sleeve shirt that was rolled up over his elbows, and some blue jeans with a large belt. He formed up some brown colored boots. "Okay that takes care of that. I just don't have any cologne, or polish to clear off with. Or a tooth brush. Or mouthwash." Logan huffed feeling his daily ritual was only half completed.

He however knew she had just as many questions on her head as he had as well. They both seemed to have their own confusions, and questions although it was Logan who for once had some kind of explanation. "Okay. That jackal, the black one. Apparently, he is Anubis. He helped save you, and somehow got me to rest by-" Logan's eye widened, and he looked back down at himself in between his legs. He covered himself, and made a wince while gritting his teeth. "Okay nevermind all he did was help me sleep with a little scare tactics. That's all." Logan shuddered realizing Anubis saw his privates as well as took the liberty to stab his genitals with a sharp hypodermic needle.

Curiosity took hold of Angie once she heard someone from the temple saved her from certain death, she inquired Logan to no end, hoping that he can somehow make sense for her. However, considering what Logan had bare witness to last night, it was only best explained that they meet Anubis at once.

The duo then, accordingly, pay Anubis a visit in his private home. Thanks to the pedestrian's hospitality and reverence towards outsiders regardless of origin, Logan and Angie managed to find Anubis's home, it was a rather humble estate with brick wall and a garden looking out into the Nile. Logan carefully examined the front entrance of the estate, the timber wolf found the Jackal's humble abode radiate a welcoming aura to visitors and that the host was someone one can expect to be courteous and eloquent in his welcoming.

"Come on, you wouldn't believe just how out of this world the guy is." Logan pressed on, pulling Angie along towards the front gate with him, once inside, they found the place to be a spacious home, with carpet laid on the ground. The furniture was very simple, with some wooden racks to hold his weapons, a bucket for his bundle of arrows and compound bow, and a bronze pan for incenses.

Angie sniffed the air and consequently, the smell of burning incenses caught her nose and made her sneeze. This brought a stoic Anubis out of dressing shades and greet his guests with a grim, less than pleasant attitude. He was apparently having a morning bath when they arrived at his home. Considering the task of burying the dead he was undertaking earlier in the morning and the general lack of sleep he has to endure, Logan would find him some what relatable to a certain extend.

Logan feeling this stood straighter and taller in a respectful manner. This was the least he could do for the grieving jackal for rescuing him and Angie from the massive engagement. All Logan did was give the deity an affirmative nod.

"I did not recall admitting visitors in this time of day. Especially after the losses of strong young men to rescue you two out of that ram's iron grip." He growled instinctively, his contempt for the two invasive outsiders was etched firmly on his facial expression and his deathly gaze at both Angie and Logan struck fear into their hearts, the young wolves didn't even dare to look at Anubis face-to-face.

Nonetheless, Angie braved the stoic jackal's strict attitude and broke the silence, "We apologize for our intrusion on your people's domain. But, there is so much that we don't understand right now. If you wish to be rid of us so badly, why didn't you just let Martin killed us then and there?" Hearing how Angie stand firm and inquire Anubis, Logan regained some of his courage to face up with Anubis in a straight conversation.

Logan made his own frown now as such. "Yeah, and again you didn't exactly have the greatest damn first impression. You know cutting our tent in the desert, and then beating me down while threatening my girl friend." After Logan said girl friend however he took hold of Angie's hand. "And if you are a god you should have know I'm not going through the best moods right now. Alice and all. Robot body. This vacation was supposed to help with that stress." Logan admitted. "So what's up with you? Why were you so aggressive before?" Logan questioned.

"Pardon my anger and frustration." Anubis sighed out as he put his towel on the the rack to let it bask the warm sunlight of Ra and dry up. "I have been stressed out by the immense task of burying the dead. Too many young men died today and it is all my fault." He slumped his face down and sat on a stool by his dining table. "If you must, then I find no excuse to further hinder your search for the truth. I did not race out with those warriors to save you two from Hornskilt's grasp. I want to obtain the book, which you have taken from its safe haven." Anubis, brought the book to the table.

"If you're Anubis then wouldn't you be a God and you're supposed to be elsewhere right?" Angie inquired, not knowing what extend does his power has diminished over the years.

"I am not what you would call 'Mortal'. The world has labelled me many names, none of which stuck out like the one the Growleeks gave me." The hint was the last straw, Angie had the confirmation she wanted to hear, it was all too incredible for her to comprehend, and yet she tried to digest the information like a giddy school girl.

"Then you really are..." She paused for a moment, "The one and only, Anubis!" She screamed out his name, much to Anubis's expectation, he had seen those names ages ago, so seeing another mortal learning his true identity was no new surprise to him.

Logan winced slightly, and leaned his body away from the excited Angie while the eye closest to here closed half way in wince. He'did however smile, and make a faint smile seeing her giddy side. "Okay easy Angie. You're still injured i think." Logan wasn't sure just how powerful the healing was, but he set his attention onto Anubis more in a respectful manner one again. "So. Really? You're the deity Anubis?"

"Yes, yes, I've heard all these names before, the titles and the confusions mortals had, regarding my occupation. To be frank, I am, or rather was, the god of embalming and mummification. My specialty was to provide funeral service for the mortals, from the greatest Pharaoh to the lowest of peasant." Angie and Logan's excitement were cut short when Anubis's statement was delivered in a dull, levelled tone, informing them of his, perhaps, former fall from grace.

Logan especially seemed confused. "You're no longer a god? Wait how does that- Then what are you now?" Logan asked, cocking his head to the side. Just when he thought the situation couldn't get stranger he learns god's a myths exist, and have power, but now was learning they could lose that same power perplexed him.

"I am a demigod in all but name. A god's divinity is only as powerful as the reverence his or her followers provide. As the ages went by, gods like I found ourselves scatter and disorganized. Some remain in the Divine Realm, the realm of gods and goddesses, while others like me are reduced to second rate demigods. We live and walk with mortals to fulfill our duty, the preparation for the impending return of Apep."

The name struck Angie's spinal cord, she knew the name of Apep, the eternal serpent god of darkness, chaos and evil, one so vile that even Set, the famed Ewegyptian god of dark power seems tame in comparison. And the presence of Anubis is anything to go by, then Angie is convinced to believe his every word on Apep.

"You mentioned Apep's return. What will Apep do to the world?" Angie coyly inquire.

"As the Book of Prophecy foretold." Anubis started with a steady voice, he read from the pages of the book on his laps. "Apep, most reviled of all Celestial beings, shall return to the world in the guise of an immoral, corrupt, apathetic mortal vessel. One that is driven by nothing more than an unrelenting thirst for eternal life, so to exact his terror, not from the proxy of his puppet, but directly through the puppet as his body. Crops will fail under a shattered sky. Realms be torn asunder, lords and servants alike, are pale in the face of the power of hell."

He closed the book and look over to Logan and Angie now frighten look, the two young wolves soon realized that Martin may not be kidding about his bid for immortality. "I spent the millennium, trying to prepare the mortals for battle against the hordes of Apep. But time has run short for me, and now I require assistance to further delay the bastard's descend. If you value your life, you would know what to do." Anubis glared at Logan and Angie, testing their mental fortitude in the face of adversity, Angie of course, felt the fault was on her for helping Hornskilt's search for the book, she broke the quivering shell and answer the call.

"Logan and I will help you, even if we have to lay down our lives to stop him." Logan's jaw dropped agape, speechless and bewildered, he was left out of the conversation as Anubis thanked Angie for her support and realization of the trouble they were all in. "Are you kidding Angie!? How can we do anything to help this guy?" Logan pouted.

"We helped an asshole trying to obtain eternal life, and almost succeeded. And I'll be damned if he succeeds based on what we've done for him." Reluctantly, Logan grumbled and went along with Angie and Anubis. But their visit was cut short when Anubis's ears picked up the sound of a cheetah approaching his estate with haste. Soon enough, the feline entered his home with an exhausted face.

The feline pants and heaves before he could inform Anubis of his observation on Hornskilt's party's progress. "Great Patron, I have disturbing news, at dawn, the cultists and their leader packed up their camp and headed north, my radio intercepts tell me they are heading for the mouth of the Nile. At Alexandria." Anubis nearly dropped his tea when he heard the Cheetah's words.

"Alexandria you said? Then I will go and meet them there in combat. But I need a vehicle to get to the river bank fast."

The Cheetah understood his patron's haste, he gave Anubis some good news for a change. "We managed to recover a jeep for you to use. Its tank is full and the engine is still in working condition."

"Good enough for me. I'll take the vehicle along with our guests here to go meet our river contact." Anubis then prepare himself for a journey up north with Logan and Angie in tow, of all the trips he had made to a city, he had never been that far up north to the mouth of the Nile itself. For long, he held a curiosity at how life has changed for the city dwellers after all those Millenniums, especially Alexandria, the city that was built by the Growleeks and Mewcedons. At least now, he finally had a chance to see it with his own eyes.


	6. Chapter 6: Enter Apep

Chapter 6: Enter Apep

His party has been out in the desert for roughly 2 hours and a half now, Martin sat in his personal command truck with spacious rooms for the kitchen, bathroom, bunk bed and even an altar for Apep, completes with praying carpet and burning incense. The ram sat in his chair, examining the map of the country and plan his next move once he arrives at Alexandria. All was fine and dandy, until a cold wind blew over his shoulder, a cackling, raspy voice whispered into his ears with snakelike hisses.

"The incumbentssss are sssstill out there. They will no doubt interfere with our workssss, you know what to do if you wisshh to rule by my side. Should you fail, your worthless soul would be of no use to me, only your worthless corpse shall remain for my usages." Much to Martin's dismay, he was dragged away from the safety and comfort of his command truck and into a realm devoid of life and senses.

A void of blood red sky and dark sands, where skeletal remains littered across the place as far as the eyes can see. And in front of Hornskilt, was Apep, the towering blood red serpent god forced Martin to revel in his presence, the gargantuan size of Apep alone drove Martin to whimper and obey the command of the serpent god like a good lap dog.

"It will be done. My lord." He was barely able to let out an audible word, he was too wrapped up in the awe appearance of Apep. Suddenly, a voice called out from the driver, it broke through the barriers of Apep's realm, and subsequently, brought Martin back to the physical reality of the mortals. "Sir, our scouts reported they saw a captured jeep moving across the desert towards the Nile river. Should they engage?" Martin didn't hesitate, he ordered, with great apprehension and pauses in between.

"T-tell them t-to kill the occupants of the vehicle! They must not beat us to the punch at Alexandria." Heeding the order accordingly, the driver nodded and he grabbed the radio in front of him to make the call. Consequently, the order was relayed to the motorized scouts, who were lurking around the desert, prowling Anubis and Co as they make their way across the vast Ewegyptian desert to the Nile.

For the occupants of the stolen jeep, their trip was thus far unabated, Logan was in the driver seat with Angie next to him navigating the course that Anubis had drawn on the map for them. As for the demigod in all but name, he was resting in the passenger seat with a hat covering his face from the scorching sun.

Logan being the driver of the jeep only listened to Angie's directioning orders while he scanned the desert around him. Normally he was the passenger in vehicles such as with Colditz or Wolfard. Today though he was driver of the sands. In his mind though he had an amusing thought of Hunter and Canyon enjoying the bumpy ride of the road they were taking. Thankfully the jeep was in working order for a off road vehicle. "Thing is taking the sand pretty well. Maybe we'll take this one home. See how Hunter and Canyon can destroy it." He chuckled.

Logan though took his eyes off of the road once to look back at Anubis. He looked tired though. No. More than tired. Exhausted to the point of a possible crash and burn. Logan made a very slight squint bringing his eyelids together. All he's heard of Gods were the ones from Growleek myth in elementary and middle school. Only using that knowledge he assumed God's not matter could do just about anything they set their minds to. He assumed Anubis could keep himself awake for eternity but now seeing him exhausted got Logan confused. He however looked to Angie for guidance. "How long do we need to keep pushing the jeep for? I'm sure the sand here isn't doing the intake much good." Logan once again took another look back at Anubis. This time feeling some sympathy.

The poor jackal exhausted himself by staying awake all night helping the tribe burying the dead with respect, he lost his sleep and was forced to stay awake until he was too exhausted to stay sober. "According to the map, it looks like we're about halfway there for the meet up." Said Angie as she examines the map.

"So how is our resident god of finest funeral services?" Logan asked, sounding like an adolescent trying to sound cool to the lady.

Angie promptly took a quick glance at Anubis, who was deep asleep at this point. "Sleeping like a baby, the poor guy, he was up all night to help with the funeral for the dead." She took some pity to Anubis for all of his determination, dedication and hard work, one would expect him to be rewarded for his efforts.

But in reality, the kind hearted, good men are not always given their due, instead, sometimes they are expended for others in the grand scheme of things. "Don't you worry, we'll get to the barge and make our way up to Alexandria in no time!" Logan's statement and attitude blinded him for a minute, once he took a careful second look at his rear view mirror, he caught the glimpse of roaming hostile jeeps with cultists fighters manning them. His eyes widened shocked though not surprised.

"Oh crap! Hang on! We may have to take a detour guys. Bad guy are right behind the jeep and they're gaining on us!" He scrambles to swing the jeep left and right across the sand dunes, Angie herself had to duck down and avoid the incoming bullets from the cultists mounted turrets.

Logan made a mad serpentine maneuver to avoid being shot by the oncoming hail of bullets. "Oh crap! At this rate the rednecks won't even need to destroy this thing! It'll be in pieces when they get it!" Logan shouted. The ride he took them on however could have easily sent flashbacks to riding in the back of betsy. The uneven dunes rocked and swayed the 4x4 jeep violently around like a roller coast while Logan slammed down on the gas. Occasionally the vehicle would jump over dunes, and then crash back down depressing the suspension system until the truck would return to its normal stance.

"You two keep driving, I'll handle them!" Anubis said, his hands reached out to the compound bow and its bundle of arrows. He armed and prime the explosive tipped arrows began to fight fire with fire. He aimed the arrow directly on the ground in front of the pursuing jeeps, he fired his arrow on the ground, consequently, the explosion knocked the jeep rolling off into a crevice and exploded, the remaining fuel helps the flame burns strong and melt whatever that is left of the smoldering wreck.

Logan made a confused look. "Oh this guy is high tech! You know for being a living artifact!" Logan made a mad chuckle before looking back at the path in front of him. "Oh God we're dead. He's using arrows against machine guns!" Logan shook his head while he tried to drive in an unpredictable manner, and yet one to support Anubis as best to their abilities. After a quick right that had the Jeep's left side scale up part of the right side of a massive sand dune Logan leveled the jeep in front of an incoming jeep behind them so Anubis could take a well placed shot.

"One down, 3 to go." Anubis counted, he quickly armed another arrow aim his shot once again, but this time he dare not let the arrow flies, for the second pursuing vehicle was too close and the ensuing explosion would kill everyone save for him. The cultist's jeep rammed into theirs, knocking Anubis's aim off and nearly got him fell off the vehicle.

"Are you alright back there?" Angie frantically asked.

Logan made a wide eyed and fearful grunt. It came out high pitched much to the embarrassment he was ignoring to save their fur. He grabbed hold tightly of the steering wheel and even contemplated to pull out his pistol do do a drive by out of window tactic. "Jeez this is getting intense you sure you don't want me to use the pistol I have, and go Resevoir Dogs on them?" Logan asked in a frantic panic state.

"Don't worry about me! Logan, step on it and give me some distance!" Logan subsequently hit the gas as hard as he could, wrestling his vehicle to full speed and maximum acceleration. The gas engine roared while the cylinders pumped full of fuel and sparked sending the jeep impressively fast through the desert. All while Logan felt his throat growling more from a scared frustration. Anubis quickly flipped himself back into the leather seat of the jeep's passenger area and quickly reorient his bow and arrow at the pursuing enemies, trying to aim and hit them with a proper shot.

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Logan shouted. As their vehicle gains some distance, Anubis recovers his aim once again, he targeted the pursuers engine block with a precision shot. He clears his lungs with a deep breath, his muscles relax as he lets go of the arrow and let it does its job.

The arrow impacted on the engine block, destroying the forward half of the jeep, anybody unfortunate enough to sit there got vaporized in an instance, while then the remains of the jeep itself rocked and rolled on the ground in a flaming and mangled mess that added a derelict vehicle to the desert's sands.

Logan grunted feeling the range of the blast. As loud as the old truck's engine was the explosions of the arrows sent a sharp ear splitting blast into Logan's ear drums. His ears rang for a moment, but thankfully for the passengers Logan was surprisingly talented at driving a vehicle such as this. If it wasn't for the intensity of the situation he would have joked about the rednecks again, but even so much as a word out his mouth would have sent the jeep crashing into the massive piles of tan colored sand.

"Two more to go!" Anubis counted, much to Logan and Angie's assurance. By that moment, they had reached the banks of the Nile, sands and dust were replaced by the scenery of vegetation and greeneries.

As such the jeep slammed into vegetation, and the occasional small tree either coating the jeep's paint work with scratches, or green plant matter. The jeep rocked around violently while Logan plowed through the vegetation ahead.

"I think we're close to the meet up now." Logan said, much to Anubis's dismay, he simply cannot let the pursuers find their barge and his contacts. "Shit! They set up a roadblock to stop us!" Angie's warning caught the jackal's attention, he rotates himself forward with an arrow at the ready, he let loose and the arrow flies out and landed on the ground between the cultists and their vehicles. The arrow's warhead once primed and ready, exploded and torn the road block into pieces and scattered the cultists all over the place.

"Punch it Logan! You can make the jump!" Logan found Anubis's order rather ludicrous, but he gunned it anyway, keeping his jeep at maximum speed, he managed to get the vehicle launched into mid air via a loading ramp and landed on the barge with a rough landing. The remaining cultists broke away from pursuing them and ran off to their safe zones deep within the desert, consequently, their targets were left unmolested for the remainder of their trip to Alexandria.

Logan made a massive sigh out in relief while he felt the adrenaline that was built up during the desert assault weighing subsiding. Hi heart still pounded blood through his body while he tried to keep up with his breathing. He felt his hands loosen their tight grip on the steering wheel while his body shook. The relief almost made him melt in his seat, but his head did go limp, and smacked down onto the steering wheel which caused the jeep's horn to blair off loudly.

Logan groaned, and panted his own exhausted and strained breaths out of his mouth while he got his head back to raise up. He then looked at his passengers."Is everyone alright?" Logan grunted, he huffed and panted again after the wild chase, the timber wolf glance around to take a quick assessment of his passengers. "I'm still here. Can't believe we actually did that." Angie commented, apparently dazed by the high octane encounter, she vomited into the water of the Nile before falling down by on the deck.

"Oh crap!" Logan yelled while he existed the less than mint condition jeep to get to Angie's side. "Angie! Don't worry, let me help you up, we'll find a cabin and you'll be fine." Logan lifted her up in his embrace, carefully giving her a drink from a canteen on himself, and brought her into the improvised passenger cabin with Anubis's help. This failure did not bode well for Martin's well-being, his master, Apep was observing the effort of Martin's warriors and the performance was less than acceptable.

The ram was once again pulled away from his own realm and taken to Apep's domain. The ram stood still in front of Apep, the gargantuan serpent god proceeds to exact his judgement on the feeble servant.

"You pathetic errand boy! What do I expect from one such as you? You worthless mortal. Your soul is of no use to me now, but your corpse will make a fine vessel for me to walk on this world and force the worthless underlings to kneel before their new ruler." Apep's jaws parted, his fork tongue stuck out and wrapped itself around Martin, lifting him up and into the space between the fiery red serpent's upper and lower jaw. Martin screamed out helplessly at the top of his lung, desperately hoping for a miracle to save him.

But much to his worst nightmare, Apep did not relent, he devoured the soul of the ram whole and subsequently assert his soul and consciousness into the body of the ram, the once innocent looking ram's eyes now turned blood red, radiating hatred and lustful desires for vengeance, from that point onward, the cultists will answer only to Apep and no one else.

Turned out, an action-adventure was never Angie's cup of tea. The poor girl simply had no physical fitness for high octane vehicle chase across the desert with her life on the line on a daily basis. She hurled up on the stern of the barge and her companions took all day to help her recover from the roller coaster ride.

Logan could only stand by her each time she vomited into the Nile river. However, the action despite his robotic body, and his muscular appearance was not working well on him either. In fact he seemed tired as well after spending an entire day dodging bullets and sand dunes alike. As Angie vomited he shook his unnerved head out, but patted her back. "Just let it all out hun. Pretty sure you might also be sea and motion sick…" Logan sighed out and stuck by her even as she puked.

By the time of sunset, she had fully recovered and was able to join them for dinner, speaking of which, their dinner was by no means, a five star restaurant meal, but still a hearty feast on the deck of the barge with the Fennec captain.

Anubis sat down with some bottles of fine beverages and like drinks for the diners and some wooden chairs. He had worked hard, catching fish and checking the food storage to count their rations, by his calculation, they could make it to Alexandria by tomorrow morning given the speed of the barge, so there was plenty to go around.

"Chow time! Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. I've been dying to experience some of your Ewegyptian cuisines for years." Logan said with an exciting attitude. He rubbed his paws together while he also smelled the meals on the table, and already his tongue stuck out, ready to drool at the drop of a hat.

"Then why didn't you come here years ago on a vacation or something?" Angie sarcastically retorted and her remark got on Logan's nerves and kill his mood in an instant.

"Why did you have to ask that?" He muttered. His ears both folded behind as he slumped forwards. They sat down together with a gruff Fennec in white tank tops and white peak cap of a captain.

"Captain, these are passengers, Angie and Logan. I would like you to say hello to captain Gamal Nasser, he has been providing trips for me up and down the Nile for years." Angie and Logan shook hands with the captain and received his warm welcome on board his barge.

"It is an honor to meet you brave travelers. Anubis rarely brings outsiders along except for important affairs. Judging from you two, I can see where this is going." Gammal said with a keen eye for details and a mind for deduction.

"Trust me, you don't know the half of it." Logan chuckled nervously trying to conceal the fact that he was worried about the danger waiting for them in Alexandria. When they dig into the meals, Logan noticed how the fishes and other dishes taste like Furrench cuisine more than Ewegyptian's native cooking. Logan made a slight tilt of the head while looking back at the captain a bit puzzled. "Question, how come your dishes taste like Furrench?" Logan's question begged Anubis to answer with levelled tone, indicating how many times he had served these meals to outsiders.

"Because they are. The usual meals Gamal and I eat are too dry for you to even dare a bite." Consequently, Logan swallowed his meal of mashed potato with bitter disappointment, the hype that built up in him after hearing some of his friends' supposed 'Experiences' with Ewegyptian clearly had been destroyed in one blow.

"How is the jeep doing Logan?" Angie asked, her bright eyes shined an innocent question into Logan's ears. He scratched the back of his head, looking nervous when facing her question. "Well bad news, the jeep is practically destroyed after the chase. The captain and I tried our best to salvage what we can but by now, we'll be walking on foot. The engine and batteries are damaged beyond repair and we can only salvage the fuel and spare parts in the vehicle." Logan continued munching on the food he was being served.

"If we had brought Hunter and Canyon i'm 90 percent sure they would have torn that thing to pieces and then put it back together." Logan then recalled the story of how Betsy was upgraded. The thought of using his nanomachine made him itch nervous like that somehow extracting nanomachines from himself was out of the question now. He stayed quiet and continued munching.

Disappointed by the loss of their transportation, but Angie remained undaunted, "On foot or not, we still have to stop Hornskilt, with or without fancy equipment at our disposal." Anubis smirked at Angie, admiring her determination and dedication to a cause she chose.

"Where did you find her anyway Anubis?" Captain Gamal asked, curious and astonished by the arctic wolf's spirit.

"Rescued from the cultists in town. The poor girl is but a pawn in his schemes and she doesn't see it until it's too late." Anubis sighed as he finishes his bowl of fried fish with a mayonnaise sauce before proceeding to clean it himself.

By the time they were done with having dinner and cleaned up, Logan was spending the rest of the evening in his cabin, under the deck and taking his sweet time off sleeping. Only Logan slept with his pistol under his pillow unnerved by the recent events. He still hadn't forgotten Alice either. He quivered in his sleep. Captain Gamal was back on his bridge, steering the barge along the Nile to Alexandria. Anubis was on fire watch, keeping a constant watch out for trouble makers and roaming scouts of the Order and prevent them from getting too close for comfort to the barge.

He sat on the hood of the jeep, which was covered in a sheet, his eyes pierced through the veil of the night, so far, no one had been trying to stall their trip. That was until something caught his eyes, Angie, she was standing by the stern of the deck, looking at the night sky, all alone. He came up to her to see if the two can have a conversation that does not relate to work for once.

"Quiet night is it?" He asked, glancing over at her for a moment. "Yes, it is. I've never seen so many stars like this before. Except for when I went on a picnic with my dad, already and it felt like a lifetime ago." Her voice took on a slightly more depressed tone, as if she was about to cry, Anubis felt like a fool for starting the conversation without knowing her better. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." He apologized sincerely, however, to his surprise, Angie didn't throw a temper tantrum, but she tried to let out her long buried griefs, perhaps it was best to ease the burden with others instead of burying it deeper.

"No it's not your fault. In fact, it's my fault for not being able to move on from the losses. My father and I used to be close with each other, more so than my mother. When I was a young pup, he used to take me out on a picnic at the hills, trips to the museum, he was an archeologist and historian, I fell in love with history thanks to him. For a while, my life was a dream, and like all dreams, it must come to an end. One day he went on an expedition into Central Asia, looking for the Tomb of Genghis Khan. But he never returned and was declared dead, they never recovered his body, of course." A tear drop slides down on Angie's cheek before dropping down into the river.

Anubis showed some empathy and wiped away another tear before it too can mark her miseries. "It is natural for one to feel the pain and torment losses. Dry your tears Angie, crying will not bring your father back, neither can godly power. Your love for your father is the greatest treasure he can ever have in a mortal lifetime. Be proud of it. Now is your time to move on and become your own person."

His fingers gently caressing her cheeks and wiping away her tears, Angie felt the comfort and kindness from Anubis familiar to that of her father. She sniffed and held back her miseries, but still taking great efforts to do so. "Thank you Anubis, I never thought I would-" But a thunderous sound interrupted them. Their attention turned to the sky on the starboard side and to their horror, the diamond night sky was slowly turning blood red.

The moon was blackened by the cloud and the cold wind of the desert blew over the barge's deck catching Angie and Anubis off guard. "What's going on!?" She screamed out, "It's Apep, he has descended into this realm! Let's get inside, I'll keep watch for any more signs of dangers." The jackal took Angie into the barge's cabin and let told her to stay inside for the duration of the night, hopefully by dawn, situation would improve somewhat.

Anubis however, was spending the little spare time he had, writing another entry into the Book of Prophecy. "They made ready for war. The wind blew cold and the Earth breathed death. The horde has gathered, Apep was borne from darkness and despair. All knelt before him, for they knew he would move heaven and earth and set on fire the foundation of mountains. Apep was borne from darkness and despair."


	7. Chapter 7: Alexandria

Chapter 7: Alexandria

Dawn has finally come to shed its early lights in the purveying darkness, rays of hopes and comfort fill the streets and chase away the fear of night. Or so it seems, not one person had a pleasant night with all the strange phenomenon still fresh in their minds. Therefore, the morning market was filled with chit chat from concerned citizens, who were either frightened or simply curious of the unnatural occurrences.

Tension was boiling over, consequently, captain Nasser cannot stay for long in the bustling city. Gamal's barge came up to the city's southern river port, where the Fennec captain let his passengers disembark with their belongings before leaving back up the Nile.

Anubis led the two young wolves through the streets of Alexandria, avoiding the busy Agoras and town centers and squares. Thankfully, their hoods and clothing managed to hold their disguises well and not one local stop them to ask for one felt an extra layer of disguise with the hood on albeit a bit dark and mysterious. After a while of walking and hiding under hoods, the trio managed to reach a quaint old book store.

The front hung a wooden board sign of 'Cleo's Books' with an eye of Horus to decorate the font of the letter 'E' in Cleo. Ancient Antiquities classics and epics, or to be precise, their copies, were prominently displayed in cases, but it seemed that nobody had the time or interest to pay the place a visit. But to Anubis, there was a clear cut reason for everything, even the bookstore's apparent lack of customers.

Logan made a hum in thought while he noticed just how abandoned the place seemed. He looked to Anubis with a confused puzzled expression. "So your friend works at this bookstore? Doesn't look like much to me, but one question though. How can he stay afloat without much income?" Logan asked, annoyingly pestering Anubis, who was trying to focus on the matters at hands.

"Let's just say, he had contacts to funnel money into this place. We have to pay the bills somehow." Anubis growled in his mouth, showing his annoyance to Logan.

"Who are we meeting exactly? This looks pretty sketchy. Like a police spy operation almost. I should know. I think me and Charlie had to into stake out mode." All of his guesses were shot down with a grim silence, Anubis sighed in bitter taste. Logan saw, and made a mumble to himself as he looked to Angie. "This so weird, and each time I say that it just goes into more weird stuff." Logan huffed.

"Let's just go say hi and be done with this." Angie whispered back to him trying not to get them into conflict with Anubis, Angie pushed the door inward and enter the bookstore, her companions followed suite. On both sides of the premises, there were shelves with great poems and literature masterpieces such as the Iliad by Homer, Odysseus, History books by Herodotus and much more.

In the middle, was a collection of Geographical books stacked like a Pyramid, impressed by how well organized the shop was, Angie couldn't resist but to pick up a copy of Odysseus and read it herself.

"Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole-Unequal laws unto a savage race." A voice reads out some the lines from the book, but Angie could tell that it was definitely not hers. It sounded like a bird, an old, refined, soft spoken bird.

"Who's there?" She asked, looking at the counter and she found an Ibis with green feathered head on a long, eloquent neck.

"I don't usually have many visitors following Anubis. Greetings, I am Jehuty, you may know me, as Thoth." The Ibis bent over and extent a wing to shake hands with Angie and Logan, much to their amazement, to speak to an actual god of knowledge, writing and the moon, in the flesh to boot.

"I am Angela Flufferson, they call me Angie." Said Angie as she shook Thoth's wing.

Logan however was still unsure just how the world of gods and deities work. He was extremely hesitant to shake Thoth's feathered hand seeing a large talking bird like entity.

Thoth of course noticed Logan's jarred nature using his wisdom to decipher Logan's body language. "Do not be alarmed young canine. I swear to you that I mean you no harm." Thoth said calmly.

Logan however gulped and finally shook Thoth's hand. "Uh. H-hi. i'm Logan, uh, Lupis. I'm Angie's b-b-b-boy friend." Logan made a long breath out trying to force words up through his mouth.

"Thoth it is good to meet you again old friend." Anubis stepped up to Thoth and shook the ibis's hand, noticing how he always keep his book by his side no matter what. "How has the store been doing?" The jackal asked playfully before handing Thoth a small glass vial with a plastic cap on its lid. "You might want to research this substance." Anubis stated pointing to the Liquid Metal inside the vial.

Logan seeing the vial, and the liquid contents nearly vomited in shock. He then remembered the pain he felt a previous night inside and on his testicles. "UH! UM! SHIT!" Logan stammered somewhat offended feeling he was the lab rat, or guinea pig in this experiment, and the fact Anubis had his essence in a jar. All without consent. Logan crossed his arms and tapped his foot on the ground remembering still the perverted Alice.

Thoth though examined the jar's contents and tilted his head. "It's like mercury almost. It has a very shiny appearance. Almost a liquidized chrome. Such an interesting find you have there Anub-" Thoth however stopped and caught wind of Logan's offended expression, and just a quick glimpse over of Logan told Thoth that Logan had some kind of attachment to the contents of the jar. "Uh. By any chance Anubis would you know the origin of the substance you have collected here, or possibly why young Logan Lupis seems to have an emotional attachment to these contents by any chance?" Thoth asked politely.

Anubis nodded to his fellow deity and kept his composure however knowing the level shock that even Thoth will have upon hearing something unseemly and out of the ordinary. "I'll make no secret of this, this substance was extracted from the young timber wolf here. Namely his testicles. I found that he is...abnormal in some strange manners I can not explain with words alone." He sighed out and then glanced over at Logan which made Angie rather concern with how much shock and what will Thoth do to her boyfriend as he will soon reveal himself to the deity.

Thoth watched Logan intently, but as he did so Logan disrobed by taking the hood off as well as the cloak. Thoth cleared his throat nervously. "Well uh . I don't think now is the time for intimate moment-" Logan shushed showing some sign of anger. Suddenly his entire body as well as the fake liquid metal clothing he was wearing faded away into a chrome shiny colored liquid metal that covered the real robotic frame below the liquid. The metal then sunk under Logan's armor revealing the wolf's real body.

Thoth stood stunned. "Oh. Dear. That is alarming young Lupis. How on Earth did this ever happen?"He then turned to Angie. "Or was he always like this? Love is a mysterious thing. I will not judge if you have committed to a robot." To this Logan sighed and pinched in between his eyes just realizing how difficult first introductions will be from here on out, and how off track his life has suddenly become. "Should I tell him, or should you?" Logan asked trying to stay within the range of understanding and offence.

Angie stepped up in front of Logan and act protectively towards him apparently she was trying to convince Thoth that there was a cause that is out of their control for his condition. "You see, a few weeks ago, there was a sudden strange incident in our hometown that got him turned into a robot against his will." She stated, Anubis then nodded to Thoth before opening his palm, from it, memories of Logan's robotization was displayed to Thoth in a holographic like form but it was glowing like the sunlight.

"You see Thoth, there has been new development to this world and universe, I will have to find some ways to comprehend this but would be meaning I will have to travel away from Ewegypt in the future. Your research effort with the Nanites here might help me." Anubis stated to Thoth as he closed his palms together and pulled down the curtains of the store to hide Logan from the wandering eyes of the pedestrians.

Thoth nodded quickly, and blushed slightly. "That poor wolf has faced some challenges. Promise me you'll at least apologize to him when you get the chance." Thoth seeing Alice's brutality felt a sympathy come over himself. For as much sympathy as he had though he examined the "essence" collected by Logan again now noting where this came from. Even as a deity of wisdom this was perplexing to him. He hummed out while a very offended Logan stood behind the curtains trying to get his liquid metal back over himself.

"Anyway now that we have it out of the way, I have some progress and news on the Book of Prophecy, a few hundred pages have been recovered at last and some prophecies have been made clear once again." Anubis showed the mended pages to Thoth excitedly, he was convinced that with the recovered in formation, they can better prepare themselves for whatever danger that might happen next. "Oh and Thoth we should get to the back of the shop, it's safer to work there." He whispered softly into Thoth's ears and patted on Logan's shoulder to get him to walk calmly with them.

Thoth nonchalantly took them to the back of the store, where they can see the real operation was being conducted in plain sight. Logan, now in his disguise with the long sleeve and cargo pants looked in the back. Though his frown was still on his, but he couldn't take his eyes off of the odd form of Thoth. Even Alfred as an alien looked somewhat normal to Logan, but seeing a walking bird god got Logan's attention. Logan though shook his head out, and looked back into the back room. His ears perked up. "So what is this place?" Logan asked to Anubis.

"This is where Thoth works, he helps me with recovering the missing pages of the book. And of course being the lead researcher for my Jackal Guards. Quite a busy task no doubt about it." True to Anubis's words, the back of the shop was a rather complicated place full of new copies of ancient books and novels waiting to be sorted into their proper place. While at the same time, the shelves are intersected by the various notes, sketches and designs Thoth came up with to aid Anubis and his "Jackal Guards". One such design was the one of the armor suit Angie and Logan saw at the tomb of Thescalineces when they first arrived.

Angie was quick to ask Thoth about the suit while looking at the piece of paper they were drawn on. "You designed these? What were they supposed to do?" She asked coyly looking at Thoth.

Thoth made a kind smile to Angie. "Well. I suppose I should explain." Thoth cleared his throat out while Logan paid attention. Thoth opened his trusted book. His most prized possession. Gold in color, and with various sapphire colored round jewels embedded into it. His eyes lightened slightly finding the page. "Ah. here we are. Elite jackal warriors as recruited by Anubis, and designed by yours truly." Thoth looked up to Angie with a kind smile again. "You may find this shocking young one, but you see on our explorations of mortal realms we in a sense get 'inspired' by your works. Possibly in the same sense as you study ancient civilizations, and deities. Only though we've come up of a way to create a better warrior. Inspired by your creations. Isn't that fascinating?" Thoth asked cheery and upbeat as ever.

Angie nodded as he placed the sketch back down on the table looking around the workplace of Thoth, being highly fascinated by what great idea would the the God of wisdom come up with before either the mortals could or he is inspired by the mortals.

However, they were soon interrupted when the back door of the store swung open with a familiar face to most came in, a raccoon wearing a white jacket, tan coat and wearing glasses came into the shop. His paws were gripping a leather bag full of papyrus pages of the Book of Prophecy, "Thoth, mes ami (my friend), I have found the missing pages. And-" He took notice of the visitors that Anubis brought to the shop, among them, Angie was the only one holding up a smiling face with a large grin showing her affection and star struck personality. "Qui sont ces gens? (Who are these people?)" The raccoon asked Thoth nervously, his finger pointing at Angie and Logan.

Thoth eyes caught to Angie and Logan. He knew explaining Logan was going to be a process in itself, but with his thinking he knew he could save that for later. "No need for fear my friend. These are allies. Trusted allies at that." He pointed over at the two of them. "Angie Flufferson, and her partner Logan Lupis." Thoth pointed to the two respectively.

"Jean Yves Raton laveur, it is you, the famed archeologist of my dream! It is you!" Angie behaviors turn to that of a fangirl going crazy over her favorite idol is front of her. Jean Yves's reaction was that awkward silence and caution.

"Qui es-tu? (Who are you?)" The raccoon asked, "Je m'appelle Angela Flufferson. (I am Angela Flufferson) And I am your biggest fan, this here is my boyfriend Logan." She introduced herself and Logan, who in turn wave his hand and spout a simple "Hello" to Jean Yves. Although Logan appeared to have a slight jealous streak seeing Angie gawk at the racoon. "Yeah. Hi." Logan said blankly.

Thoth quickly intervenes to prevent further confusion from taking up their precious times. "Don't worry Jean, these two youngsters are brought here by Anubis. They shall help us in our effort. As you were, monsieur Raton laveur. (mister Raccoon)" Thoth stated.

Taking Thoth's words with a grain of salt, Jean put his bag on the table and brought a stack of around 300 pages of papyrus papers with Hieratic writings on them, by putting the pages together with the ones already in placed in the book, Jean was able to translate the ancient Coptic writings and determine the goal of Martin's endgame.

"As the darkness descend and forces the mortals to cower in their homes, the Avatar of evil shall walk the streets of the Northern city, prowling on the fear of mortals and make his way to the palace of the divine rulers. There he shall desecrate the sanctuary of the divines, and brought forth the instrument of eternal life, the Ankh of Isis. Should his rite succeeds, all will suffer before him as he will manifest itself as thunder and his step shook cities to its knees, and his fury shall bury all under a carpet of fire. A storm that will never end."

The unsettling nature of the prophecy itself can send chills down the spines of lesser souls, but to these brave explorers, gods and freshmen, it comes with the territories. Nevertheless, Angie was neither shaken nor stirred in her resolve, "That means we will have to enter queen Cleopanthra's old palace. The problem is that it's underwater now, we'll need re-breathers to explore the complex." She said analytically, impress with her knowledge of history and foresightedness, Jean Yves quickly warmed up to her like a teacher meeting his potential star student.

"Why that's right my dear. You must be an avid disciple and a major in history, aren't you?" Jean Yves complimentary would of course rung well into Angie's ears as it was the first time an intern like herself being congratulated by an expert in the field, almost a complimentary too good to be real.

Angie nervously giggle, "Oh, it's nothing, really."

Logan hearing her giggle crossed his arms and felt a metaphorical dark cloud of jealousy cloud over him. He however looked through his body's devices suspicious that he might have some water breathing, and scuba gear just out of curiosity. Much to his surprise he had one, but he stood up straight again having this knowledge. "Neat. I could use that." Logan said to himself while he watched the other's conversate.

"Actually, there is one place of the palace that is still accessible to us." Anubis chimed in, much to their collective surprise, he points his finger towards a small patch of land on the outlying area of the coast of Alexandria. Perhaps it could be best described as the last of the palace itself.

"This is the temple compound, there is my temple, the Temple of Isis, and the Temple of Sobek. I'll enter my temple to reawaken the Jackal Guards while you will work your way into the temple of Isis." He instructed and the two archaeologists nodded in agreement to his plan. It was simple but to the point perhaps it was very effective for him to get them reinforcement first and foremost but he had to depart from the planning table to as he finds Logan to be excluded from the conversation. "Something wrong Logan? I know that you are offended by me taking away your essence without your consent but I can sense some...jealousy in you." Said Anubis as he crossed his arms looking at Logan.

Logan looked up at Anubis, and then back in between Jean and Angie Now realizing he was probably caught for his body language. He did however remember one thing that was said about the temple however. "Nothing. But you guys said that the temple was under water? Like Atlantis underwater, or the Edmund Fitzgerbald or the Zootanic type of underwater?" Logan asked with the sound of an idea forming.

"Most of the Pharos Island and the Palace went underwater after the tsunami that struck it centuries ago. But one area built on a relatively higher ground in comparison to the rest and it survived well to this day." Anubis kept his arms crossed and his eyes focus on Logan, knowing that there was something troubling him other than the nonconsensual extraction of his essence. "Though I have to apologize for taking your essence without your consent." He finished and bowed his head to Logan before showing him upstair to a bedroom for Logan to sleep with Angie.

Logan finally let up hearing the much needed apology. It was something not many people said to him in the weeks that led up to now. He seemed a bit more relieved to that point, and he was right about something, but he turned to face Angie. "I found something on my robot body that might help us. Not sure how it works though. It says scuba matic mark 2, or something like that. I haven't used it before." Logan stated more serious this time, and lightly willing to use one of his abilities.

Anubis sat down on a wooden stool and scratch his chin thinking about Logan's ability to dive and swim fascinates him greatly as to how he could help out. The jackal stood up and paced around the room and ponder his thought. "Considering the place where we're going, the temple complex are above water surface, though when high tides come, you'll need to swim. Yes I suppose that is helpful, protect your lover with it."

Logan cleared his throat while the liquid metal covering his cheeks glew a red blush, but he made a determined frown and nodded. "Well I guess if we can't figure out a way to get me out of the robot body I guess we are just going to see what it can do. Pretty sure I have several kinds of bottle openers, can openers, lighters, and other gadgets on me. Might as well test them out." Logan tried to brighten his own mood by making a fake chuckle, but sighed feeling less alive than before.

"Fret not Logan. I believe there is a reason for everything, even your current predicament, perhaps it was Neith's idea of bringing us to encounter one another so that we can provide the assistance to our problems. Rest for now Logan, dinner will be ready." Anubis would then exited the room and went down stairs stretching himself out in the process. As the day went by, Angie and Logan get to enjoy their dinner of hot roasted fish with salad. While the two young canines are resting on the second floor, Anubis went to meet Thoth in the back of the shop. There he found the ibis was still going over the vial of Nanites that Anubis handed to him. "Anything interesting come to mind Thoth?" He asked while leaning against the doorway.

Thoth hummed to himself while he used a magnifying glass to study Logan's nanites. Anubis noticed though Thoth's absolute intrigue investigating each one. "Well they are certainly unlike sperm cells. And from what I know Logan may be the only one to be assimilated. There are multiple concerns in my head." As he spoke he wrote down his studies, and hypothesis inside of his book. He then set the magnifying glass down, and pointed to his notes. "Well from what I gathered. We don't know where he received his upgrades besides a erm… Very sex driven robot. To put it lightly, and secondly it seems like the threat of this Alice was eliminated by him. A swift revenge if you ask me. The other item of interest Anubis is just what we can do with these. Of course they are in a very limited supply. This jar being the only contents of course. We'd be lucky if he'd agree to lend us more, but seeing him I can already diagnose him with post trauma, and depression possibly." Thoth shuddered thinking just what might be in Logan's head. It was clear though he wasn't into merely using Logan for personal gain.

Anubis promptly sat down on a wooden stool in front of Thoth and observes the content of the Nanites via the magnifying glass and he too saw a unique ecology of Nanites working with one another to sustain themselves outside of a host. The jackal then turned to face the ibis and began to converse with him. "You know Thoth considering the fact that you helped me design the armor for the Elite jackal guards, I am thankful for that and deeply in your debt, I believe that with this we could somehow use this Nanites to augment ourselves like Logan though in a more...willing manner. With it we will be able to better prepare ourselves against Apep's eventual coming. What do you think?" Anubis stroke his chin and waited for Thoth to reply, the thought of augmenting himself to the jackal was very interesting indeed though he dare not say that to Logan. He however kept in mind that he knows as of late, very little of the Nanites.

Thoth nodded. His own thoughts were of using the Nanites to their advantage. "Yes. But I don't understand the possible dangers. The mortals, no offense, were seemingly forceful and careless of their use of the nanites. For all we know Logan was a very lucky individual to escape that with his new life intact. Still. We need to know if what we have here is adequate in a full assimilation, or if more are required." Thoth's eyes then frowned. His heart jumped almost forgetting another deity. A very prominent one to the two of them. He looked back at Anubis with a serious expression. "And then there's Ra… We don't know how he'd react to seeing a fellow deity turned into a machine… It wouldn't be an enjoyable sight… We can guarantee that knowing his temper." Thoth gulped.

Anubis frowned at the mentioning of Ra and he let out a groan and rubbed his temple knowing how much the Sun God was rather aggressive towards the notion of innovating the deity's power or even the very way they operate. "Ugh...he's still wants to project the image of peace between the pantheons. The peace treaty sure helps bring the Second Great War to an end but I sense conflict brewing Thoth. Do you think that you can at least provide me with some basic need to know about the Nanites with what you have here for research?" He asked now standing up and walk around the back room looking at the various tools that was at Thoth's disposal for the job, ranging from magnifying glass, surgeon knives, solder, a toolbox with various tools for basic machinery. "Or must I find other sources to aid my effort?" He sighed out not knowing who else to trust but Thoth. The ibis could see that Anubis was growing concern when it comes to the idea of actually enlisting help outside of the known inner circle.

Thoth much to his concern, and worry made a more serious frown. He thought about where they had gotten the nanites. All thanks to Logan, but not knowing the exact procedure, or even the exact origin was troubling. "Have you had a personal conversation with the young wolf? He might know more about his exact procedure, or what remains of Alice since it sounds like he was at the center of the conflict. He should know more about it." Thoth's eyes however perked up with the sudden thought of a new idea coming to his mind. "Or we could do that, and hire teams of specialists to help us. Develop a home to reside in that would be close to the young wolf. See how he operates now on a day to day basis. Watch him closely, and study if any defect might exist. You could also ask Angie for assistance with that. She seems to put all of her heart, and passion into Logan. It brings warmth to my own heart that's for sure. Perhaps she will be of assistance." Thoth recommended.

Anubis nodded and smile lightly at Thoth's recommendation. "You truly are a God of wisdom Thoth. I can't thank you- What was that?" Anubis suddenly turned his head out towards the streets outside the shop, he sensed something evil and foreboding was stalking the streets of Alexandria. In his hand, his scepter morphed out of the thin air, forming itself and taking shape in his palm before finally he gripped its body and twirl it around in his hand. "Stay here and protect the mortals, I'll be back."

He walked out of the bookstore and followed his senses. Out on the streets where most of the populace have turned in for the night, Anubis saw a rather odd sight for Alexandria, fog, something that was only possible for the colder parts of the world was now in Alexandria. He looked up in the sky and found the moon to be blood red and this made him gasped in fear, he shivered slightly before finding his courage again to patrol the streets. He went down the Agora of town, towards the location that felt like the epicenter of the strange phenomenon. The Catacombs of Kom El Shoqafa. Inside the bookstore however, Thoth could feel that something else was prowling the streets, stalking Anubis from behind, on the second floor, Angie, Logan and even Jean Yves all heard the thudding and tremorous footsteps of...an iron minotaur around 8 feet tall wielding a massive steel sledgehammer.

Logan went up to the window and saw the stalkerish minotaur. Logan gasped in sharp fear seeing the behemoth. "Oh you have to be shitting me!... Please for the love of God tell me that's on our side!" However Logan's heart sunk down deep into him as he felt his hope drain from his body just knowing that the minotaur clearly was not going to be on their side for this part of the conflict.

As the minotaur made another step sending his tremor on the ground, Anubis quickly spun around and fired a Mummification strike at the Taur, wrapping its body in a tight constricting bondage of mummy bandages. The jackal deity quickly fired his Gaze of Death at the taur's head, obliterating it instantly before aiming the beam down and smashed the torso apart into molten slags. "Thoth I think we have more trouble here than we would like. I sense some dark magic going down at the catacombs, I'll head there to seal it off first make sure that the mortals are safe." Anubis instructed to Thoth via their telepathic link before finally running off down the streets towards the Catacombs entrance.

Thoth hearing the telepathic message nodded to himself, and put both of his middle and index fingers to his temples on both hands. He frowned in concentration to get his thoughts to Anubis. "You have my word the youth will be protected." Thoth promised. He held his book tighter, and went up to Angie's and Logan room, but he heard Logan shouting incoherently.

"A MINOTAUR? THAT'S WHAT THEY ARE SENDING, AND DID YOU SEE WHAT ANUBIS DID TO IT? THAT WAS AWESOME!" Logan shouted much to Thoth's own surprise. "I suppose it isn't often a mortal sees a deity's power." Toth thought to himself while he entered their room.

"Excuse him Thoth but it's really his first time seeing Anubis at work with his power and all. But Anubis is in danger and we got to help him." She urged Logan to get up and follow her as she puts on her clothes and grabbed her pistol to protect herself. Much to Jean Yves dismay however as the racoon scury over to dissuade her.

"Non, non. C'est trop dangereux. (No, no. It's too dangerous) Who knows what kind of danger is lurking on the streets of city at this point." He reasoned with her but seeing as she isn't listening and was determine to get out of the bookstore to find Anubis seems to convince him it was hopeless to reason with her. "Je suppose que c'est ma responsabilité en tant qu'adulte pour te protéger. (I suppose it is my responsibility as an adult to protect you)" He sighed out now it was his turn to put on some traveling outfit and a pith helmet to protect his head even though it wouldn't offer much physical protection anyway.

"Thoth, where is Anubis going? Did he tell you where he is heading?" She asked the Ibis now cocking her weapon and holstered it on her thigh. On her back was a backpack carrying the Book of Prophecy and some essential supplies such medical kits, flashlight, lighter and travel guides.

Thoth placed himself in front of the door, and sighed. "My apologies young ones, but Anubis has instructed me to protect you with my own life. A commitment and order i must not break. As for Anubis he has gone into the dark catacombs. A terrifying descent I'm sure for the weaker hearted, but for him. Well. Being a deity that guides the dead I'm very certain that he'll pull through." Thoth said still in front of the door.

Logan frowned slightly noticing Thoth's position. He huffed. "Oh great house arrest. Years of police training, and I'm the one who's stuck." Logan said with the slightest sound of irony in his voice.

Angie sighed out along and quickly thought to herself to get out of the shop and follow Anubis before any harm could come to him, but to lose Thoth however she needs to be quick and clever with it, a feat that is impossible to a God of Wisdom. "I'm sorry Thoth but I have no choice in this matter when it comes to Anubis's safety." She said in a dull tongue before proceeding to give Thoth's armpit a tickle attack to get him laugh out and fall down on the floor. She then quickly grabbed Logan's arm and tugged him out of the store with her and Jean Yves following them close behind.

Meanwhile, Anubis sense that the danger of the city was growing ever greater, as he was walking down the ancient streets of the once mighty multicultural city of Alexandria, he felt a tremor shaking the earth underneath. A creature was burrowing its way across the land and was now coming ever closer. He saw before his eyes at an Agora, a massive fire serpent with red scales and a pair of mandibles on its head rose out of the earth, breathing fire out of its mouth at the market stalls. "Just what I need, a fire serpent. Apep must be having a field day right now." He grumbled.

Being a Guardian deity, he quickly dashed forward to the Fire Serpent to stop its rampage. In his mouth, there were apparitions of ghostly cyan locusts bubbling up and ready to fire, he came to within meters away from the serpent, catching its gaze and fired the Plagues of Locusts at the serpent's head, causing it to flinch upon being struck the locusts, it lashes out it return by striking its head at Anubis, throwing him into a pillar and he smashed through its concrete base, falling down on his back inside a market stall. "Well that's how you want to play then very well I'll take you to the Underworld then." Anubis growled out like a canine as he slammed his scepter on the ground to summon Grasping Hands. "Let the eternal darkness embrace you." He chants as the hands grasp the serpent's neck, trying their best to drag it down though Anubis's strength has not recovered to its full potential yet to use his ultimate attack on the serpent's face.

Thankfully for Anubis he wasn't going to be fighting this battle alone. He heard a familiar, and yet almost startling hiss followed by a low constant hum. Possibly a sound that would have gotten him both thankfully, and yet disappointed in his combat performance. He looked over to the streets, and saw Logan dashing over the pavement with extended laser swords. Logan hadn't noticed Anubis, but Anubis noticed Logan was still in a disguise. Mostly at least as his body was normal in appearance while his laser claws were giving his appearance away. Logan then made a loud yell and leaped to cut into the serpents right side just below the neck. He planted his feet on the serpent's neck after his jump to bring him some balance.

"Logan what are you doing here? You're supposed to be inside the bookstore for safety!" He scolded the mechanical wolf for his reckless attack on the fire serpent but was unaware of what was happening. "Don't tell me you ran out alone just to fight this thing." He chided Logan before launching his orbs at the fire serpent to inflict some damages to its eyes.

"Uh! No! I was kinda hoping you'd be happy to have some help here!" Logan shouted as he ducked the serpents swinging tail. He noticed it was blind for the moment, and took the liberty to jump onto its scaly back. He then ran up the length of the serpent and repeatedly struck the back of its head while grumbling. "And well I wouldn't be here if Thoth wasn't so ticklish! Just ask Angie!" Logan shouted.

Anubis himself made a double take once he heard how Angie simply tickle Thoth to get away and help him before sighing out and facepalm himself. "Oh for heaven's sake, Thoth, really? You have one job." He grumbled before having to make a dolphin dive to his right and dodge an incoming attack by the Fire serpent fire ball spitting attack. "Keep moving and stay away from its blue fire balls, those are Growleek fire." Anubis warned Logan as he circles around the fire serpent before he levitates himself into the air and fired his Gaze of Death at the fire serpent's eyes, burning off its scale and some of its protection as well.

While the reptile was fighting with Anubis and Logan, Angie and Jean Yves were nearby watching as the battle unfold before them, her gun would surely do no damages to it but her wit could somehow tip the balance of power into Anubis's favor. "That's it." She said.

The raccoon turned to face her curiously and asked. "That's what?"

"I remember there is a tune, a hymn that can scare the Fire serpent away or even seal it back into the Underworld." She looked around the smashed up music stall and found a lyre, an ancient piece of musical instrument. This lend Jean Yves an idea as he too began to see her point.

"C'est en croyant! (That's incredible!) Of course, we could use the Hymn to the waves to finally seal it off." He then proceeds to scurry over to the lyre and with Angie play the hymn to the waves, what could arguably be the oldest song in the history of the world. The music they play, starts with the plucking of the lyre's musical notes, before she then gave it a stroke across the strings of the instrument. Jean Yves continue his assistance with adding in some notes she might forgot. Slowly but surely, the Fire serpent's attack became much less intimidating and it began to burrow down to the underworld with fire underneath the pavement, slowly engulfing it till its head is seen no more.

Logan became slightly confused at first, but more boastful. "Yeah we showed that snake who's the toughest in town. Hahah...Oh God I touched it." Logan shuddered, and wiped his hands over his body. "Why did it have to be snakes..." Logan complained. He looked over at the hole however. "So what got that Graboid to finally flee? Hm?" Logan asked.

"It's thanks to the hymn here!" Angie excitedly ran up showing Logan a piece of paper that she and Jean Yves used to hastily put on a musical number for. She handed Logan the music sheet with the lyre still in her paws. "We scare it off with this music number and we couldn't believe that we actually done it." She proclaims excitedly. However her excitement soon died down when she saw Anubis's stern and hard face as the jackal was standing in front of her crossing his hands.

"I told you to stay inside the shop, how did you get out of there? And what happened to Thoth?" He questioned them and eyed them both waiting for an answer even seeing Thoth coming to meet them now by chance would do to explain to him for real how did they escape.

Thoth finally flew down from the sky as a normal ibis bird. Once his talons landed on the ground he gave quick glance of the city around them to see if anyone was watching. He was panting, but seeing as the streets were clear, and destroyed enough to the point people would have evacuated he made a green violently swirling vortex around himself to get back into his normal look. He however made a concerned look to Angie. "Amusing. Really. You can't outwit the god of wisdom, but through a *ahem* physical method you bested me." Thoth still giggled not having that sensation in a while.

Anubis sighed out seeing Thoth's reception of the tickle attack by Angie. He however turned his face towards the catacombs of Alexandria where he felt unwelcoming energy and dark magic seeping out of it with the fog originated from its entrance now turning a sickly green. "This is not good." He uttered. Then he began to enchant the group, in his mouth, he began to utter an incantation, a spell that in his hands were a pair of sapphire orbs. The orbs then flies at Angie and Logan, slamming them in their chest, sending warm wave of protective aura into their bodies. "I've just casted a protection spell on you, you should be safe from the danger of the catacombs now." He crossed his arms and look at the duo however before waving his index finger side to side. "Don't disobey me again when it comes to safety. The book shop is too far back now so I suppose I will have to take you with me to keep an eye on both of you." He sighed out disappointingly.

Logan shuddered in a "grossed out" manner while he felt the warmness of the mysterious spell go through his body. He didn't ache, or feel any pain in his body at all. Instead he seemed confused, and disgusted slightly. "Eww. Its warm, and blech… slimy. The Hell?" Logan swung his arms out trying to see how his body processes the odd incantation. He looked back up however at the two deities, and nodded while getting himself back into a straight back position to stand tall and proud. "Alright let's get this job done. I think this vacation has really been an adventure." Logan sighed while he walked to the catacombs.

Thoth made an affirmative nod. "Understandable. Not exactly the work a mortal should have to worry about, but now that your robot body is here you'll be of great assistance to us." Thoth then looked back to Angie, and whispered."Just between you and me I do have a soft side, but do desire to seem more challenging. You have to show that strength in the deity world to make yourself look proper." Thoth nodded.

Anubis nodded to this statement by Thoth before letting the mortals into the catacombs with him. Though before he followed them in, he glanced back at Thoth. "Thoth remember when we first arrived at Alexandria together when the capital was moved? I felt strange then and I felt strange now. And yet I don't know why whenever I look at you under the moonlight, I felt...an odd feeling." He stuttered a bit before looking away from Thoth's face slightly embarrassed by the thoughts that are torturing his mind. "Forget about it. Let's go." He sighed out and head down the staircase towards the catacombs.

Unlike the staircase designs of the Classical Antiquities, this staircase was a twisting one from the Medieval Age similar to that of a castle watch tower. Anubis's hand on his scepter tighten, as he came down the stairs, he collapsed to his knees however, the jackal curled up with his back resting against the wall and he looked down at himself. He saw a burning wound, flesh seared off of it thanks to the Fire serpent's attack. Perhaps he didn't notice it during the rush of battle. "Oh damn it just what I need." He complained.

Logan winced as he walked up to the jackal deity. "Oh shit that doesn't look to good." Logan looked up to Anubis confused by a thought on his mind. "Hey. If you're a god… like… Or no. Wait. Well god yeah. If you're one of those then how come I can beat you down, and you can take injuries such as these?" Logan asked, but not in a matter to offend. He seemed genuinely concerned, and curious.

Thoth however knelt by Anubis. His book he held one handed and opened it. He then scanned the pages of the book to find the spell he was looking for. "Ah here we are. Healing and mending." Thoth's palm lit with a glowing blue aura, but he looked up to Logan, and smiled. "Ah. I thought that might be the question of your interests. It's more complicated than that. You see we are immortal only by a sense of life. Mortal weapons, well yes damaging and stinging, can't damage us as well as you'd believed. We aren't indestructible young one. It's more of uhhh…" Thoth scratched the bottom side of his beak as he thought of a good comparison. His fingers snapped as an idea came to mind. "Well you could compare us to the vampires. Minus the undead, well actually scratch that, minus the unholy and bloodsucking. There's a certain way we are hurt. It's very complex. It's not easily describable in easy terms." Thoth explained while his hand emitted a magical aura that made Anubis's wound tingle, and fade off. His flesh connected back together without scarring. It wasn't Thoth's job normally, but his seemingly endless knowledge, and his book seemed to have an answer for just about anything.

"In short...gah! Mortal weapons may not hinder or hurt us. But if you're a deity, then you ca...ouch! Can hurt us just as well." He groaned out while holding on to his wound, feeling it slowly mend to the stinging but at the same time warm burning sensation of Thoth's magic and his healing power. Once the wound has been healed Anubis sighed out gratefully. "Thank you Thoth, I thought it was my turn to be judged in the Underworld."Anubis stood up slowly, still feeling his wound sore somewhat. "I think you are wondering what was I trying to say back at the entrance, yes?" Anubis asked glancing up at Thoth with a look that seems to show his longing for something.

Thoth cleared his throat, and blushed. Once again it wasn't hard for Thoth's wisdom to catch on, and not much slipped by him. He however looked back at Angie and Logan somewhat embarrassed himself. "Why, uh, yes. However, I think we should leave that in private." He made his voice into a whisper. "Believe me. I can sense Logan's own longing, but I won't embarrass him in this location, and I don't think the two lovers need to be confused by our, uh, own adventures." Thoth stated, but nodded in affirmation.

Thankfully Logan was too busy to hear what had been said as he was keeping an eye open feeling creeped out. He felt static chills over his frame like they were on the inside of his body. No the outside. Creeped out he kept alert, and firm straight up back.

Anubis nodded as he then pushed himself up to his feet again and gritted his teeth, now holding his scepter once again, he then lead them down the catacombs with Thoth following him protecting the mortals. As they made their ways down towards the gateway of the Catacombs, they felt a dreary atmosphere, a cold crawls up their spines as the dark catacombs, filled with morgue like rooms and bury sections was filled with an cyan mist, within the mist, they could see skull like apparitions of various dead animals who have been buried here. The corridors that they were taking passed by a flooded section of the catacomb, with wooden planks to walk on. The place was incredibly claustrophobic.

It was made worse when they heard the clanging of metal that echoes throughout the place. Then, they saw on the wall in front of them, the shadow of a hyena wearing what can be best described as a helmet in the Hellenic period. His back seems to hunch over however and the shadow seems to suggest that he was carrying...a sword? A sword that was being dragged on the floor. It was further confirmed with the creaking sound of wooden planks tilting due to the weight of the blade.

Logan pointed over feeling a haunting cold sensation pour over his body. His spine tingled a chill, and the finger he pointed with shook. "Uh. You know this entire time I've been feeling colder than normal. And it isn't even supposed to be cold. And uhhh… My hud is showing a high electromagnetic field. I don't know what that means, but I watched these ghost shows, and these were all of the sensations of" Logan gulped seeming suddenly cowardly. "G-g-g-g-ghosts…"

Thoth however scratched his chin while giving off a slight hum. "Strange no electricity, or electrical systems should be running through these areas." Thoth's wise eyes raised in the slightest manner. "Or perhaps the dead here are really unrestful, and we may have missed this place on our travels." Thoth embarrassed of missing a location of his duties opened his book to write names down. "Why yes this would be a haunted catacomb." Thoth said with no caution. Logan to this shivered uneased further. "You really know how to keep a guy's nerves calm don't you?..." Logan said sarcastically.

"Be quiet, it's Necromancy, the dark art of raising the undead and tampered with souls. Which is why I casted the protection spell." Anubis snarled at the shadow as he held up his scepter at battle ready pose. The hyena soon ran out from around the corner, but what was hair raising about it was the fact that it was now a skeleton, dried up and dusty with not a single tangible piece of flesh remaining on it. It held its blade up while running towards Anubis with all intention to kill him only to be blasted apart by Anubis's orb. "A thousand apology of this deity to you." He sighed out, feeling a sense of disappointment drowning him.

Angie examined the skeleton's weapons and found some interesting features on its weapon however, firstly it was the fact that the sword was a Xiphos, popular melee weapon for the Growleeks during the Howllenic period. The shield was a round bronze shield that was popular to Growleek armies, it also has a depiction of the famous gorgon Mewdusa painted on it with the bundle of snake hair spreading around. "This is not good...there's bound to be more of them inside the catacombs."

Anubis nodded to her observation much to Logan's chagrin. "And their skeletons shall be reanimated and reassemble quite easily with whoever is doing the incantation." He snarled continuing to lead the way for them with his eyes now flashing as bright as the lantern, his vision shows the world in a pale white veil with the restless souls highlighted to be walking around as skeletons holding swords and shields. Some were Xiphos to denote they're Growleeks, others were carrying Gladius to denote they're Romammals. Anubis's vision was soon shared with Thoth as the Ibis too can see various deadly enemies prowling the catacombs.

Thoth less creeped out that Logan turned to the spell casting page in his book while he examined the mixture of undead soldiers. "Looks like a confrontation is ahead of us." Thoth stated. He looked around the catacombs however, and found some melee weapons. "Logan, Angie arm yourselves accordingly. Don't try to bear what you cannot swing." Thoth stated as he moved through the catacombs carefully.\

Logan stuck his tongue out however seeing the rusted out and grimy weapons well beyond rotten, but still for the taking. "Blech. Nahhhh. I'll stick with these." Logan said as he extended the claws from his wrists. They made a red glow that illuminated part of the catacombs, but looked to see if Angie would pick a weapon of her choice.

Angie would then quickly grabbed her 45 caliber pistol on her thigh and lock and load it just in case. As they were coming to a drier area of the Catacombs, they found themselves to be in the presence of various skeletons and undead soldiers. All of whom seems to be walking around in a manner that seems to denote their undead state. Unaware of their presence, they walk around digging out tombs to find more to raise from the underworld. "This dark magic must not be allowed to continue. Let's end this while we still can." Said Anubis as he slammed the scepter to the ground, summoning Grasping Hands that causes them to flinch and react like stereotypical undead corpses. The bat off the hands and tried to break out of the grasp of the ghostly apparitions only to be met by Anubis's Plague of Locusts that disassemble their skeletal structures.

Logan held back as he watched in wonderment of the works that the deities could do. He as about to see just what Thoth could do as well. Thoth placed a transparent blue colored field of magical energy in front of the group that was bordered by orange colored bordering lights that were eye catching to Logan. This was Thoth's glyph of pain. Thoth stayed firmly placed behind the glyph and peered through it while he moved his right hand over his book. He made grabbing motions over the book and then flung his right arm outwards firing blue colored round orbs of light at the undead in the catacombs assisting Anubis. This ability being the hieroglyphic assault. He fired the orbs 3 at a time at the skeletons scattering bones randomly.

With the hordes of the undead cleared out relatively fast and effectively, Anubis felt the place was safe enough for them to continue onward. Jean Yves himself shuddered in fear as this was his closest to actual battles, perhaps too close even for his first. They soon found their way towards a hall, a grand hall built in Romammal style. The Hall of Caraclawla built for the emperor of the same name in 215 A.D to bury Christian mammals at the time. Around them were a cathedral like granite and marble stone structure with all sorts of painting and fresco depictions of the emperor punishing Christians. It was here that Logan and Angie were treated to the sight of a well where bones of Christians were organized into a circle with their skulls stacking above their limbs. What made this even more foreboding was the fact that they can see the cyan mist originated from this section of the catacomb with Caraclawla screaming and howling, a disembodied voice haunts the place with the lion emperor's face manifested in the cyan mist of Necromancy magic.

Logan for once ignored the urge to howl, but instead was resisting the natural urge to listen to his fears and run out of the room. His theories of ghosts haunting the catacombs were now proven to be more than correct, but every inch of him didn't want this to be the case at all. "S-so do I do anything, or do I just stand still because I think i'm having a small heart attack right now man…" Logan gulped.

Thoth however took the initiative, and made another glyph of pain shield to increase his and Anubis's damage levels while shielding them. "Your assistance would be appreciated young Logan, but I wouldn't advise getting too close to it! So far you seem to be more of a close ranged combatant!" Thoth sounded out while he fired out spells from his fingers at the lion.

Logan huffed and went back into his hud to find if he had built in weapons on his body that could fire projectiles rather than using a small pistol and his laser claws.

"Thoth you're the best when it comes to spell. I'll keep the apparition busy while you cast the spell to banish it back to the Underworld and seal it there." Anubis spoke telepathically to Thoth before throwing himself into battle with the ghostly apparition of the Romammal emperor. Anubis threw out various orbs against the apparition, dazzling it time and again only to be met with a ghastly roar that launches various ghostly apparitions of skulls flying towards Anubis forcing him to take shelters behind the pillar of the Hall. "Angie, Logan, make sure that the hall is set to be sealed off! There are levers around the place that you can pull to seal off the hall from future access!" Anubis shouted at them, having Angie and Jean Yves running around with Logan to find the levers that the deity was talking about.

Logan as he went to find the levers went through his weaponry on his frame only seeing combat moves he had learned in police academy and more militarised moves that were programmed into him. However, he finally found one weapon that would prove to be useful just as he reached a wooden lever. "JACKPOT! RAILGUN! Just like in the video games!" Logan shouted loudly and in an excited manner not thinking twice to activate the rail guns when the need be. Thoth however heard Logan's shout and tilted his head while casting various blue colored spells out. "Huh. The timberwolf must have found something to peak his excitement." Thoth commented.

Ducking behind a pillar after dodging yet another roar by the lion head, Anubis saw on the ground of the Hall, a seal, it was a silver seal with blood red eyes on a serpentine coiling around an ankh. Anubis knew that the seal was the cause of the necromancy.

The jackal quickly fired his Gaze of Death at the Lion's apparition before grabbing the pendant as quickly as he can. "Close the gate now!" He shouted and Angie along with Logan pulled the levers simultaneously. This caused the stone gates of the Hall to slowly come down forcing Anubis to grab Thoth and sweep him off his legs while Angie carried Jean Yves out of the Hall with them.

The apparition continue to fired its ghastly breathes at them while the stone gates fall down finally shutting the Hall of Caraclawla for good. Once they made it back to the surface, Anubis handed Thoth the seal. "The seal of Necromancy, no doubt left by Apep to stir up troubles. I suppose you have a spell that can destroy it?" He asked and handed the seal to Thoth, waiting the for the ibis to conduct his ritual on it.

Thoth nodded and held the seal in hand. "How odd such a miniscule pendant can cause such a large issue needing our heads to solve the issues. Right I should have the answer right here. Just give me a moment." Thoth said while he flipped through the pages of his book.

Logan at that moment was inspecting his railguns. When he selected the weapons he found that the liquid metal retracted under his armor followed by two red colored panels on his arms opening, or lifting upwards with the top of the panel having a hexagonal shape with the mid part and parallel sides having a very elongated appearance. Small cylinders then erected forwards out of the panels, and over those laser pointers for aiming. "Holy! Jeez! Look at these damn things! They look like they can punch through walls!" Logan exclaimed..

Thoth however finally found the page he was looking for. It was titled "anti-necromancy tools" on the pages were glyphs of incantations and a small square in the center of the book of which Thoth placed the medallion on. He then shut the book and recited a chilling whisper to cure the possessed piece. He then opened the book back up to show the amulet had been completely cleaned, and purified of evil. He smiled and handed it over to Anubis. "Harmless, and a nice decorative piece. You can wear it as a necklace now if your heart desired." Thoth boasted.

Angie sighed out in relief, though she was by now exhausted from the entire effort inside the catacombs. "Well at least we're safe for now." Upon mentioning safety, the fog of Necromancy began to lift itself and the area seems to have been cleared of any other supernatural threats and they were as Angie had mentioned safe for the time being.

"Not by a longshot, Apep probably left it there to distract us, let's go to the temple of Isis now to stop him from further damaging the world." Anubis glanced over at Thoth expecting him to follow them to the temple of Isis by the last vestige of the island of Pharos. "You coming Thoth?" He asked.

Thoth hugged onto his book, and nodded quickly to Anubis. "Why yes of course. You'll need a spell caster for this duty, and I happen to know many of the spells required for this task." As Thoth followed along however he looked back at the three mortal accompanying them. His expression turned to concern seeing them follow along to a definite danger ahead of them. "However, I'm fairly certain you all should take the next decision very carefully. It is not for the faint of heart. I would advise leaving this to me and Anubis." Thoth recommended.

Logan however stepped forwards and shook his head out. "No way. I might complain, and nag a lot about how crazy everything is now, but I'm sticking with this. When I signed into the Zootopia Police Department my oath was protect and serve. Now I guess the oath stands here as well." he said firmly, but he turned to Angie however with a more dissapointed look. "Maybe you should find some safety yourself hun. I nearly lost you once I don't want to do that again…" Logan said solemnly.

"You're not going anywhere without me Logan." She tugged at his ear and twisted it around, harshly although she can't inflict much pain against him. "Wherever you go, I'll follow and when you're trouble I'm dragging you out! Got that?" She threatened him, having made her point absolutely clear to him and it was futile to even try to dissuade her from dropping the trip altogether.

Anubis sighed out and frown slightly at this. Feeling the responsibility of divine protection for his mortals now even more taxing than before. He nodded at Logan and Angie approvingly. "Very well, then let's go to the Island of Pharos, time is running out." He said before turning towards the harbor and lead them down the road towards the place. "Thoth, once we've taken care of Apep's presence here, it is of utmost importance for you to inform Ra of the danger we're facing. Get him to understand but speak nothing of the Nanites and my plans for it." He instructed Thoth slowly and cautiously as they walk along the docks.

Thoth coughed out in shock hearing the disallowance of leaking information to Ra. He stuttered shocked. "Well that's…" Thoth sighed however knowing Ra very personally. "I suppose you're just in this decision my friend. He is a bit explosive personality wise. If he were to find us using these he would have a hard time accepting it, but highly do not recommend you do what Logan Lupis has been forced to accept…" Thoth said looking back at Logan. Logan was rubbing his aching ear while groaning in pain. Thoth chuckled seeing this. "Its tough love as other might say. You should feel graced to have that commitment." Thoth giggled.

Anubis however grumbled at Thoth perhaps out of annoyance first and foremost. "Thoth what do you suppose would happen if we tell Ra that 'Oh hey we found this substance that can augment our bodies into bio mechanical versions'? You know how Ra is very uptight about keeping tradition in line." He sighed out feeling himself rather weak when it comes to facing judgement by Ra. "He's not easy with technology at all. I kept the Jackal Guards under the radar and use traditional weapons for stealthy reasons and to compromise with Ra." He tilted his head back looking at the stars above, the night was Thoth's time as he is also the deity of the moon. While in broad daylight, Ra would have teleported himself to them and scold Anubis to no end.

Thoth felt more himself in the night. He made a short happy hum to himself while reasoning with Anubis. "Well are you absolutely certain the nanites are a benefit? So far you have yet to interview Logan on possible deficiencies or issues he faces now as a cyborganic, uh, lack for a better word organism." Thoth levitated up and got close to Anubis while using a whimsical stare at him to reason with the deity of the dead. "It's a very hard decision to come to my friend, but for now I'm not the one who knows what the augmentation must feel like that I believe belongs with Logan." Thoth stated looking once again back to Logan. Logan was however walking upright and tall. He seemed physically strong, but Thoth since some conflict within the timberwolf's head.

Anubis then hopped onto a wooden sailing ship of a friendly fisherman who had known the deity for sometime, then he helped Logan, Angie, Jean Yves and Thoth onboard before telling Thoth, "Look I'll ask Logan more on it when I have the time to do so. For now let's keep the Nanites to ourselves." Anubis saw that the young mortals have retired to their cabins below deck while they were sailing across the harbor front towards the island of Pharos. "It's romantic tonight isn't it? For young lovers if only they weren't on an adventure too dangerous for their own undertaking." He sighed out feeling a great sense of regret bearing down on him whenever he looked at the direction of the cabin or even thought of Angie and Logan. "How has Isis been?" He asked Thoth, now holding onto the railing of the ship.

Thoth looked over to Anubis, and tilted his head. He raised a curious brow, and nodded. "Your mother has been doing well...but to be honest, she had seen better days when you were home." The wise ibis sighed out to Anubis holding his tome in his armpit looking at Anubis with a sympathetic gaze seeing that the jackal himself had some regrets, but it wasn't entirely his fault when Anubis departed the Deity's realm and live in perpetual secrecy in the mortal realm.

"And Ra? I assume he has been the same?" Anubis asked Thoth with a heavy sigh as he light up a cigar to smoke the cold night away and by extension his worries. As the boat rocked them closer to the island, Thoth shook his head to Anubis and slumped his long elegant beak down. "Not quite either. Ra continues his ray of warm loving sun, but he has been intensely fixated on finding you. Even more so than before for some reasons." Thoth remarked to Anubis with a heavy tone apparently sympathizing with Jackal's plight, "If only I know what to do with Ra, what to speak to him if I meet him again. Anyway, I'll be on fire watch, you best get some rest." Thoth nodded to Anubis as he turned around and went to the cabin in the lower decks of the ship to rest while Anubis himself stood watch on the bowl of the ship.


	8. Chapter 8: The Jackal Guards

Chapter 8: The Jackal Guards

For millennia, the palace of Cleopanthra was an abandoned ruin at the bottom of the ocean, parts of it remain on the shore of Alexandria as a reminder of the ancient history, written by Pharaohs with varying claims to their thrones. The compound that was the ancient temple complexes devoted to Anubis, Isis and Sobek respectively.

While Angie and Logan were led by Jean Yves into the temple of Isis under the escort of Thoth, Anubis was making his own effort to revisit his sacred ground. Much memories had been buried here in the corridors and grand halls of these temples, and Anubis remembers them well. He can recall the first day he visit Alexandria alongside the then new Pharaoh of Ewegypt, Pharaoh Ptolemy Soter, a Howllenic Pharaoh from Mewcedon.

The hall he was strolling through was once called the 'Gallery of Warriors', a place built to revere great servicemen of Ewegypt. With spacious hubs and towering statues of jackals standing in focal points, this was his home in the final days of Ewegypt. And as he made his way through the dark corridors, where no sunlight could penetrate the thick stone walls, memories and nostalgia intertwined into ghostly images and vivid hallucinations of the past.

Anubis passed by a corridor decorated with statues of familiar faces of the Pantheons, with his own as the most prominent, rather ironic considering Anubis himself was a minor god in the Pantheon of old. Before his eyes, were ghostly hallucination of himself, dressed in Howllenic battle armor with a Xiphos slung on his side; next to him was Pharaoh Ptolemy looking rather concern as he converse with the patron god.

"How can I be assured when you are the one gathering warriors and arming them for war against a force no state can comprehend?" Ptolemy chided Anubis, sounding rather annoyed but the Jackal god remain stoic in the face of criticism.

"I know that you are having a hard time quelling the concern of your cabinets. But know this Ptolemy, I am preparing for the worst that has yet to come." He remarked, holding his index finger at Ptolemy's face. Disapproved by the god's overruling of his authority, Ptolemy nonetheless walked on deeper into the Temple, passing by rows of black jackals in combat armor. "What do you think of them?" Anubis asked, sounding rather hopeful and expected to hear the best.

"They are effective, that I shall not deny. However, their recruitment method is rather..." The Pharaoh paused for a moment. "...unorthodox. The souls of the dead are to be rested in the Afterlife where eternal enjoyment..." Anubis quickly cut in and chided the Mewcedon borne ruler.

"There shall be no eternal rest for them if Apep is allowed to return, unopposed. I am preparing them for the worst in this life and the next."

When the visions faded away, Anubis was left alone in an empty hall, with broken statues and simple tombs marked by an effigy of Horus. He kneeled over one of the tomb to pay his respect by leaving a pair of coins from the ancient world. "So many memories. It felt like it was just yesterday." He muttered, resuming his journey back to the inner sanctum of the temple. He eventually came up to a grand hall with a demonstration ground in the middle for one-on-one matches, around the hall were racks of weapons of Antiquities.

Ranging from traditional Ewegyptian weapons such Khopesh, Battle Axes, Compound Bows and arrows, to the Howllenic weapons like Pikes and Xiphos for Hoplites. It was here that the ghostly vision resumed their predation on Anubis's senses as he saw himself standing with Ptolemy and watching two freshly recruited Guards fighting each other using traditional weapons.

"There have been debates raging over style of warfare you wish to adopt. Some conservatives, Sekhmet included, stated her disdain towards using heavier armor of Alexander's Army. She prefer using traditional techniques and practices from Ramses II to modernizing our army." Ptolemy said, watching in astonishment as the two Jackal Guards fought each other using Xiphos and Growlleek shield.

"The hardliners have no merits in these matters!" Anubis threw a hiss at the mentioning of Sekhmet before continue. "If they wished to fight the Seleucid Empire and eventually into Bactria and Mewcedon, then they should find new trade partners and reinvigorate the economy. Here, there is only one thing, combat."

Once the vision had faded away, Anubis was left with the sight of haunting halls and eerily quiet walls. But that silence was not meant to last as he footsteps were closing in and the sound of constant chattering of intruders intensified. As quick as lighting, Anubis climbed up on a pillar and shimmy along the wall, high above the cultists below.

Observing their movements patiently, Anubis read their intentions just by their body language alone as the main body moved away, leaving behind a lone sentry to guard the intersecting hallways, learning little by little, the general direction they were taking was to his meditation chamber. "So, Apep wished to cut me off from the Guards, he should have done it by himself instead." The demigod thought.

He then prepared himself for combat by drawing the compound bow and an arrow. He aimed the iron tipped armor piercing arrow at the neck of the lone sentry, who was trying to get a smoke. The dark jackal held his breath for a moment before letting the arrow flew at its target, thus, sure enough, the arrow pierced the neck and shatter the vocal chord.

The cultist flinched at the sudden intrusion of the sharp projectile, before he can fully comprehend what has happened, the arrow has firmly lodged itself inside his throat and he dropped to the ground completely limb.

Satisfied with his perfect kill, Anubis leap down to the ground, and chase after the remaining platoon of cultists down the Hall of Fate. A corridor, narrow in design, lit by rows of torches and decorated by hieroglyphs depicting Anubis training his elite Jackal Guards. "I was all alone in here, locked up to do my bidding to two worlds. I wondered then, and I wonder now, what would happen if I had made the right decision." He muttered, marveling the memories on the walls.

As he exited the hallway and down to the barricaded entrance of his chamber, he found his worst nightmare come true, the cultists had managed to set up shop just outside of his chamber, desecrating the holy sanctum itself by digging out whatever treasure that was left and toppling statues to make room for their equipment. They were examining the door, finding the entrance barricaded and battering it down would take too long, they settle with explosives instead.

"This party ends here." Anubis proclaimed, catching their attention with a terracotta bomb rolling on the ground, its detonation killed a pack of 5 cultists, sowing confusions in their ranks. The Jackal ran down along the wall with his Khopesh in paw, sliding over to one of the gunmen before slashing out his innards and hook his blade into the cultist's head.

He retrieved his blade by its handle before moving on to his next targets. Anubis was fast and furious, cutting down the gunmen before they can have a bead on his movements, eventually, the mooks were all dead and the entrance was secured once again. Of course, the lot of them would be easy for him to take, save for the hulking fighter armed with riot shield, clad in heavy combat suit and brandishing his personal machete.

He pounded Anubis to the ground, forcing the noble jackal to quickly scrambled away from his foe. "Come on asshole! I wanna see the size of that booty of yours!" He taunted, but the dark jackal wasn't daunted by such bantering. Anubis hopped back behind some ammo crates with his explosive tipped arrow at the ready, he fired the arrow on the ground, dazing the heavy fighter before rushing to his side, his Khopesh dug deep into the entrails of the buffalo fighter, Anubis didn't hesitate and ripped out his organs and bloodied the floor.

With his hands free of opponents, Anubis proceeds to open the door by rotating a knob to open up the riddle mechanism on the door. Subsequently, he was presented with a fractured painting on the door, waiting to be reassembled. Remembering exactly how it looks, Anubis quickly went to work and reassemble the painting back together into the portrait of his 'Father' Set fighting Apep and protect the great sun God Ra. With the door opened and his chamber was once again accessible, the demigod wasted no time at all in mobilizing the Jackal Guards.

He lighted up the torches in the chamber, opened a scripture on the pedestal. He read the scripture in Ancient Greek, chanting and calling out to the warriors guarding the Afterlife to assemble and defend the first life they had had. Consequently, a wind blew over the chamber, its howling can be heard throughout the place. A minor tremor rumbled through the complex as legions of dark warriors clad in Jackal armor walked through the portal between the mortal world and the afterlife.

Each one of them, almost identical in look with jackal armor protecting them from harm, inside was the flaming spirits of the dead controlling their new body. The Hoplites were carrying spears and Howllenic armor, compound bowmen were carrying with them quiver packs of traditional Ewegyptian warriors, axemen and swordsmen were carrying the uniforms and battle armor of both previous dynasties and Alexander's Mewcedonian helmet. They gathered around Anubis into military ranks, made ready for war for thousands of years, now was the time to put their training to Baptism by Fire.

The temple of Isis, home of Eternal Life, and most welcoming of sanctuaries. The builders had put their all into the temple's design and construction, erecting a monument for the motherly Goddess of their Kingdom. With the aid of Jean Yves, Logan and Angie were able to enter the Temple of Isis where the secretive Ankh of Isis is said to be hidden. Overcoming obstacles and booby traps, the expedition pushed on in their pursuit of the Ankh and prevention of Apep from gaining eternal life for his vessel, they have come close, very close to the Ankh itself.

The quartet found their way into a grand hall with statues of Isis in all of her feline glory, a goddess of motherhood. At first, they expected the temple to be a well lit, open air place with heavenly serene to boot, however, what they found was anything but serene. The grand hall with the Sacred Pond was the sight of a gruesome battle between a Romulus Legion from the Bisontine and the defenders of the Temple. Weapons littered across the hall, both Howllenic and Romulus alike, shields were splintered, spears were shattered and swords ran dull, many of the ancient weapons had rusted away, losing the potency they once enjoyed. Worn as they were, they remain deadly due to infections once it has tasted its victim's flesh.

Corpses of Legionnaires strewn across the floor, some of them were floating in the pond, poisoning the water from ages ago. Angie and Jean Yves can make out the troops judging by their uniforms, some were Skutatoi, others were spearmen and skirmishers. The marks of battles were etched firmly on the skeletal remains of the mummified corpses, their death was surely dealt by a well armed and highly trained foe, extremely motivated and determined to stand fast and turn the tide, regardless of their losses; their armors were hacked and slashed by Growlleek Xiphons, others were pierced by Pikes and arrows from an Ancient Ewegyptian compound bow.

"C'est incroyable. (This is incredible) The warriors who held back these Legionnaires were probably Growlleeks. Look at these footprints!" He pointed to the ground, a spot where footprints of a staggered line of Pikemen with blood splattered on the ground 10 feet away from where the footprint was.

"Anubis?" Angie muttered, knowing who fought to the last breath to defend the sanctuary. However, she remained unaware of the kind of assistance he received at the time of the battle.

"And look here, shards of a Pike, obviously an army of Howllenic culture stood their ground here and fought off the expeditionary force of the Bisontine Empire." Within the pocket of the soldiers, the raccoon found ancient coins of the Justinian I era. Logan was subsequently pulled in to inspect the ancient treasure with the raccoon, marveling at the sight of Bisontine craftsmanship and intricate details of the Denarii.

Angie felt ignored once her boyfriend dove into monetary artifacts with her idol, leaving herself nothing but a lonely wolf waiting for attention. Consequently, this left her even more susceptible to a mental attack by Apep, such as now, when she heard whisperings enchanting her, calling her to follow its instruction like a puppet, dancing to the tunes of the musician. She subsequently marched off, behind their backs, her vision became blurry once her eyes started to play tricks with her senses, giving her the illusion of her father in his brown jacket and tan pants walking along the corridors of the temple. Her ears joined in and filled her head with her father's voice and her own.

"Daddy, who is that god with wolf head?" Said the young Angie, when she was a seven years old pup. "That is Anpu honey, or better known as Anubis by the Growlleeks. He is the god of funeral and embalming, he made mummies for Pharaohs." He father answered, while holding his daughter lovingly in his arms. Those words were first uttered by the father and daughter when he took her to Zootopia's Museum of Natural History.

It was one of those early years, which Angie could call content at least and blissful at best. Then she heard those fateful words, the last words her father spoken to her before he disappeared for good. "How long will you be gone?" She asked naively, a 10 years old Angie anxiously watched as her father packed his bags for an expedition.

"I'm not sure honey, maybe a month or two. Either way I'll be home soon kiddo, and cheer up, your mother will always be there for you before I'm home. This might be my last trip before I retire to be a university lecturer." And since then, he was gone, disappeared from her life with his aptly named, 'Final trip'.

She ventured from the main hall into a chamber with sunlight directly shined into the pedestal in the middle, the vision of her father walking around disappeared, and consequently, she was left alone in an open air ceremonial chamber, in front of her was the ex mentor, turned traitor, Martin Hornskilt. The old goat stand still behind the pedestal, his eyes were now blood red, a warning Angie best heed by running away, but his gaze was captivating and its hypnotic property prevented her from doing anything.

The room they were in was the all important Sanctuary of Light with the statue of Isis in the middle, though the statue by now has been smashed up with the interior emptied, in Hornskilt's hoof was the Ankh of Isis now in his possession. Though to use it he requires a certain sacrifice to give him the ingredient he needs, a youthful and powerful soul. And he knows just who would fit the criterias.

"Come to me my child, there is nothing for you to fear. It is your old mentor after all." Martin hissed at her, a strange behavior for a goat, to hiss like a snake, his tongue became a black fork tongue, sticking out of his mouth. "M...Mar...Martin? No, this can't be right." She resisted the urge, trying to reason herself out of the chamber. But his voice took on a melancholic tone, pinning her gaze fixed firmly into his eyes.

"Do not be frighten my dear. Come, and bring me the book. Put it on the pedestal and stand still afterwards." Martin called out once again, urging her even further. Angie found herself helpless to resist his temptations, her hand slipped into the duffle bag and brought the Book of Prophecy out.

Martin's tongue slithered even more vigorously than before, his grip on his walking cane tighten and muscle feeling the sensation of orgasm as she place the book ever closer to the pedestal. "Yes, yes, good girl. Go on, do it! And I will reward you with all the pleasure you have ever wished. A lifetime with your father, and all those years without him, reversed! With a snap of my fingers."

His promises were enticing to the common man, but his tone has shifted, from a suave, patient strategist to a petulant child hastening its caretaker to meet his demands. Angie suddenly snapped just before she places the book on the pedestal once she had heard of her father. She knew her father well, moreover, his first lesson was "The glory of the past can never be relived in the present." Angie relent from going with Apep's instructions and try to run away, only to be captured by his henchmen.

Two well built horses held her back, two other hyenas grabbed the book from her hands and presented it to Apep. She regretted her inability to resist his temptations that led to her subsequent capture and the ensuing predicament.

The dark god of chaos marveled the only known works of Anubis, he switched his dialect from Martin's modern English to Ancient Coptic and spoke to Angie, taunting and teasing her at every conceivable points of her existence. "I must say my dear Angelica, or Angela, you have proven yourself to be quite a formidable foe. Surviving all of my traps and made your way here regardless of the danger. You truly are his daughter, his reincarnation, his soul, molded perfectly to suits you." When Apep made his statement of reincarnation and soul, Angie got curious and in her head, she was making guess works on who was Apep talking about. Could it be, he was mentioning her father?

She spoke back in Coptic, with almost perfect fluency of the language. "Who are talking about? My father? No, you're mentioning someone else, a warrior isn't it? The one who constantly fought you, protecting the balance of world, he flirted with your temptations and was punished afterwards, didn't he?" Apep chuckled on, he bursts into hysterical laugh and left Angie creeped out by his antics, there was something not right about Apep's maniacal behavior.

But something soon caught her attention, on the terrace in front of her was a flashing glint of sunlight. Her knowledge of naval communication told her it was Morse code, conducted by Anubis, over watching the room with his squad of archers. He was using his body language to inform her to keep the cultists occupied as long as she can, while his troops surround them and pounce to the rescue.

Angie nodded and reorient her gaze to Apep who has just recovered from his emotional outburst. "Where was I? Oh yes, you are the reincarnation of..." he was immediately cut short by Logan and Jean Yves as well as Thoth bursting in and engage some of his lackeys to free Angie. "Fire!" Anubis roared out at his warriors who then fired a salvo of arrows down on the cultists in red, dropping their numbers by a quarter.

Logan for one dropped all restraints to retain his calm and collective personality. Instead now striking with fury. "Alright here goes. Uh. Activate railguns! I think?" Logan requested. In his request his liquid metal disguise faded off of him, and left him in his red colored armorings. From the top of his forearms popped out the railguns once again. This time however the lasers were focused center mass on his adversaries, and made a camera like whine sound. Logan made a fierce grin while he watched his arms target. The rail cannons began to glow red in the barrels, and made "Wulululu" sound while they charged.

However, Logan then realized the energy output he'll fire off may be too great for him to counter as he began to feel his arms shake. "Ohhh shi-" Was all Logan could utter out before bright red beams of burning hot light fired out and shot away from Logan while Logan took the recoil and was launched backwards into a wall behind him. He hit the wall with a bang, and fell to his chest a groaning mess while the rail shots hit the chest of two adversaries, and penetrated past them shooting them backwards from the sheer force of the blast

Thoth flinched hearing the loud sound, and turned his head to check Logan's state. "Are you alright Logan? That was one impressive attack!" Thoth lifted his head up with a drunken smile and gave a thumbs up. "That's all I needed. Continue your combat procedure! Thoth announced while he began casting out spells that hit the other adversaries in the room. "Have at you beasts of tyranny and chaos! Begone to the underworld for you final judgement!" Thoth exclaimed as he used his ultimate ability of the same title. A row of bright blue colored orbs of magic that fired out from his arm span towards the other enemies in the room. All while Logan coughed and got back to his feet.

Angie didn't wait long to be rescued, she fiercely bit the guard who was holding her by his hand. Forcing him to release her in an instance. She grabbed the pistol in his holster and fired a shot into his head, dropping him instantly, two more bisons came in, trying to ram her with their horns.

Angie leap out of the way and fired a bullet into one of the bisons stomach area, causing him to lose balance and control, thus, he rammed into the pedestal, this caused a booby trap mechanism to activate as four blades pop on the top before collapsing down on the ground, offing the unfortunate bison permanently. "Why you little..." The hyena pulled his pistol out of its holster and prepare to fired at Angie, nonetheless, she rolled forward, almost on instinct, confusing his aim in the process and kick him in the testicles, forcing him to drop his weapon into her waiting left hand.

"Bitch? I already guessed that, asshole!" She lunged her left pistol into his ribs and pulled the trigger, splattering his blood all over the floor, then she pushed her second pistol into the hyena's forehead and dealt the deathblow.

Logan laughed out in both an impressed manner and shocked seeing Angie's rage, but nonetheless he raised his hand to cheer her on knowing just how mad she was at this point. "THAT-A-GIRL! SHOW THEM WHO'S BOSS!" Logan shouted at the top of his lungs. He however was stopped quickly seeing another bison step up to him and cracking his knuckles while showing Logan all of his teeth. Logan slumped slightly. "Well hi there… Big... Guy…" Logan then gulped.

Accordingly to the chaos and mayhem below, the cultists quickly stormed in to secure the room and the escaping Hornskilt's avenue of exit. Their intrusion subsequently drew out Anubis's Jackal Guards, who descend down upon them from all sides with a fury and unrelenting zeal of a monk, at such close quarter encounter, guns were no match for neither the purity of hand to hand combat, nor the swift and exacting lethality of a blade's cold metal tip tasting the flesh and fabric of the cultists.

Their commander in chief joined in at instance, diving off of the perch, Anubis armed himself with a pair of battle axes and cut down Apep's followers with fast and furious precision, leaping and sliding through their shattering formation like the wind of death, a black streak of agonizing end to their lives. "Thoth with me! We need to stop the cultists from escaping!" He called out to the ibis as the jackal slayed two muscular heavily armed cultists with his battle axe. Anubis tossed his right hand axe flying at one cultist behind Thoth before going back to back with his fellow deity. "Be careful Thoth, I'll watch your back and won't let them hurt you."

Thoth made a strong affirmative nod to Anubis as he raised a glowing blue finger in the air. "I'll be able to enforce a strong ranged presence in this conflict! I can guarantee that!" Thoth proudly exclaimed. He called out incantations from his book to any foe that drew to close to him and Anubis. Each projectile smacked into the chests of the foes doing untold things to them. Three hyenas were unfortunate enough to get too close to the God of wisdom as they were struck in their chests. Thoth fired out like a machine gun, and each spell pumped the hyenas until their hearts ceased to beat any longer, and they fell down dead. However, Thoth watched Logan's duel with the bison.

The bison launched a downwards fist to the ground just as Logan was fast enough to dodge by making a backwards slide for safety. Logan growled, and saw quickly the bison had raised himself up, and was charging at the timber wolf. Logan as such dashed to the right and dodged the bisons horns narrowly. Logan made a angered and fury driven shout as he charged his railguns again. Logan closed his eyes tightly trying to prepare for the recoil this would have on him. "Oh here we go agai-" was once again all Logan would say before letting out another lightening fast projectile that made a sound that cracked the air, and penetrated the bison's flesh killing him instantly as his organ were turned to liquid. However, Logan was sent flying through the air,and landed below where Anubis was perched while all Logan could do was lay down on his back and groan.

Anubis quickly picked Logan up from where he landed with one hand while the other summons his scepter. "Be careful with your surrounding Logan stay close to Angie while Thoth and I clear out the enemies." Anubis then snapped his jaw at the head of one cultist and broke the skull of the cultist before he then summons grasping hands to drag the cultist's down to the underworld.

Logan seeing the brutal act didn't need much convincing afterwards, and as such he made a frightened yell that went up and down in volume while he scrambled to get to Angie. "HANG ON! I'M COMING! I'M COMING!" Logan repeated. The rail gun attacks were taking both his physical strength with each blow he too, but he also noticed just how much power they drained from him as he was one quarter the way down suddenly. "You gotta be fucking kidding…" Logan complained while huffing.

Thoth in the meantime made a gun gesture with his hands and fingers, and began firing spells off as such. Each time he pretended the thumb was the hammer of a gun he would fling it downwards while his fingers fired out blue spells. "This is exhilarating!" One of the braver, and yet stupider cultists tried to swing down a battle axe to Thoth only for him to evade the cultist, and then fire a more concentrated spell blasting the cultist back, and ending him.

"Anyone here see the goat?" Anubis asked casually as he slashed his battle axe on the head of another cultists being impaled by his warrior's spear. Sure enough his answer was replied with Jean Yves catching sight of Hornskilt running away.

"Apep échappe! (Apep is escaping!)" Jean Yves cried out, making his way through the crowds of warriors falling over one another, the raccoon leap up and amazingly, he managed to latch on to the goat's back, holding the horns down with his tiny paws.

"Get off you cheese eating trash panda!" Hornskilt growled at the scholar's brave action and threw the raccoon to the ground, preparing to stomp the raccoon with his hooves. "You should have retired in silence instead." The goat chided, only to be shot on his shoulder by Angie who was now standing over Jean Yves, providing her determined protection with absolute resolve.

"You little brat! You wouldn't murder your own mentor, would you?" He dared her, trying to desperately get out of sticky situation.

"He's gone, you're just Apep." She coldly pulled the trigger of one pistol after another, shooting the possessed goat's chest with a barrage of bullets. He was stunned by her conviction, she would DARE to kill her own mentor, but he was too late to take back his words as his body was filled with white hot lead, he soon collapsed to the ground, lifeless and limb.

As the last of the cultist fell to the swords and spears of the Jackal Guards, and the dust settled, the victors of the day emerged. Anubis counted his losses, to his heavy heart, his Guard Corps has shrunk to a size so small that they can not continue combat and protect the tombs of Ewegypt anymore.

Their mission has been fulfilled, stopping Apep from reigning over the mortals in a reign of terror, but should the Dark God of Eternal Primordial Chaos rise again in the future, there might not be a force sufficient enough to stop him. In their triumphant achievement, the Jackal Guards became grains of sand, carried out of to the Afterlife by the winds of Horus, and with it, they were gone.

The demigod and Logan went over to a weeping Angie, finding her overwhelmed by the emotional consequences of her action and the aftermath of the ferocious battle. Jean Yves tried his best to help her emotionally, offering her his canteen. But for Angie, the scar of actually murdering her mentor would be something she wouldn't be able to overcome anytime soon. "Thoth, let's get Angie out of here, our business is done." Anubis whispered to Thoth as he helps Angie up to her feet though her face remained slumped down and down and her eyes covered by her hands.

Logan however moved next to Angie seeing her like this. He knew deep down her betrayed heart was shattered, and he felt his own guilt not being there for her. He instead stood by her side, and wrapped and arm around her to bring her in for a loving embrace. The top of his head met her's to comfort her more, but still his own heart ached seeing his lover weep. Guilt poured into his own soul feeling he wasn't doing enough for her. Thoth only levitated next to Anubis, and watched as the two of them stuck close. He however felt warm in some way seeing the two young lovers interact even if they may have felt cold.

Anubis sighed, picking up the ankh of Isis found inside of Martin's pocket and wipe the blood off of it. The jackal then placed the ankh in his pouch for safekeeping. Knowing how well the mortals might try to steal the Ankh again in the future. They left the temple without much trouble after wards and found that it was now near midday, with Ra's sun shining down on them as if it was a congratulatory gesture. Though Anubis can not tell if it was intentional. "Thoth, you know what to do with Ra, I will be traveling soon with Logan and Angie to their hometown and obtain better research regarding the Nanites. Any travel recommendation you want to make?" Anubis sat down on the fishing boat's deck and offer Thoth to sit down close to him while Angie and Logan were in their cabin trying to help her cope with the losses.

Thoth nodded and patted Anubis's shoulder. "I might have some. Find a home, or a temporary shelter for yourself. Get to know a different culture, and interact, but not loose your secret identity. Perhaps get to know the couple's friends, and family. They might know how to assist them." Thoth said as he looked to where the couple had rested in privacy. "We can only hope they'll be blessed enough so that the stress they face now won't cause a separation." Thoth smiled to Anubis though. "Because they have my blessing."

Anubis smiled confidently at Thoth as he stroke his chin, he then summons out of the thin air a map of Zootopia and some guides for staying. He looked through some notable locales of the city and residential areas. "Any news and updates on the city's situation that you have heard of? Considering ears in Alexandria are rather sensitive to the outside world." He asked hinting at any newspapers and possible informations that Thoth may have heard of.

Thoth tilted his head back and forth. "Well I am certain the city is recovering from a recent attack on their crop supply. A similar case as what is now happening to our Logan. This was followed by, and you may not believe the words coming from my mouth, a giant robot spider searching for a lover?" Thoth shrugged confused. "It seemed a media blackout happened, but the heros of the day were a timber wolf, two arctic wolves, a trucker who had to be placed under tranquilizers to calm down, and two coyotes. An intriguing news article wouldn't you say?" Thoth asked.

Anubis stroke his chin as he heard of the news story stroking his chin with intrigue as he grab a newspaper regarding the incident and read as much as he can. The article could only share as much as the police allowed the editor to. But in general, it was already enough to get Anubis interested. He hugged Thoth in and patted his back before giving Thoth another kiss on his beak passionately while massaging his back. "Thanks for the help Thoth. I shall get myself pack up and ready for travel as soon as I can." He said. "Just make sure Ra doesn't know about the Nanites."

Thoth of course nodded, but again gestured towards the couples' cabin. "You have my word, but I do recommend you, erhm, check in on our new found allies." Thoth shrugged to the suggestion, but had his reasons. "Believe me. Judging simply by Angie's reactions to us hearing she has the blessing of a god personally may cheer her up." Thoth smiled.


	9. Chapter 9: Home and away again?

Chapter 9: Home and away...again?

Their journey in the Kingdom of the Nile has finally come to an end, scantily a week ago, they set foot on the land of Pharaohs and Kings as young archeologists. Now, they are leaving home, empty handed, saved for the heavy hearts, and bitter disappointment. The young couple sat in the passenger seats of a sedan, with Jean Yves at the wheel, driving them to Cairo's airport for their home flight.

Logan feeling somewhat stressed, and depressed rested his head on Angie's left shoulder while in his disguise. He didn't take his eyes off of her as he felt extreme pity for her. "Please get better Angie…" He begged of her. He wrapped his arm around her body to hug her in close.

The atmosphere has been calmed thus far, with Angie remain silent for the entirety of the drive and Logan sat next to her patting her on the back. She was raised with rational explanations for the physical realm, therefore, seeing the existence of gods and their magic were beyond her. Being a lady of her words, Angie was forced to return home without a single artifact to justify the curator's employment. By this point her career was doomed to end in a fiery finale before it can even reach its apex.

The airport eventually came into view as Jean Yves slowed his car down by the sidewalk of the international terminal building. 'Goodbye', or even 'Farewell' were the watchwords of the day as Angie and Logan exited the sedan and collect their bags in the rear of the vehicle. "It's most unfortunate that you're already leaving, otherwise we could have had some times to exchange notes and comparing documents." The raccoon said, expressing his sympathy to both Logan and Angie, especially to the young lady.

"The feeling is mutual Jean, but there is simply nothing left around here to work. The best I can do right now is to go home and prepare myself for the next employment. Or lack thereof." She sighed, knowing full well that her gamble with the curator was a sure lost and soon she will face an agonizingly long period of employment, and the inability to market herself as anything but reliable.

Logan shook his head, and made a massive sigh in disappointment. He brought two fingers to his right temple and flicked his wrist away from his head as his "goodbye" and "goodluck" gesture. "Yeah. Thank you, uh, Jean. I'll be sure to look into your books after I sign myself back into the precinct. Thanks for the help. Sir." Logan turned away from the car, but to say sir to anyone besides the superiors he worked with, or any government official was almost an honor in itself.

"Merci beaucoup Logan." The raccoon politely replied to Logan.

Burdened by the sight of a promising career coming to an unseemly, and frankly, unjust ending, Jean Yves felt he could no longer stand idly by and let this continue on a course that's dead set in stone. Before leaving for Cairo's airport, Anubis was preparing something for the future, the jackal god let Jean Yves in on a few things, but reminded the archeologist not to disclose the content's the Jackal God's grand strategy for the next 500 years.

However, Angie was the exception, not the rule, the raccoon remembered that Anubis wrote a letter to Angie and Jean Yves volunteered to deliver it before she leave Ewegypt. The raccoon franticly searched his pockets and pouches, eventually finding the letter inside his jacket, and handed it over to her.

"What's this Jean Yves? A letter from..." She took a closer inspection of the seal on the letter and Coptic writing of the sender. Conversely, much to her astonishment, this traditional hand written letter was from "Anubis!" She cried out his name before having to cover her mouth to avoid raising unnecessary attentions at the airport.

"He told me to give it to you, saying that it is of vital importance." Angie was subsequently reinvigorated by both curiosity and distraction from her imminent unemployment, after all, if it was of any importance that she must receive a letter from Anubis, then he must have a plan. "Angie, it's almost time. We'll send some love letters his way later."

Logan reminded, running low on time, nevertheless, she gave Jean a warm hug before having to rush through the terminal with her boyfriend to board their flight back home. On board her flight, the white wolf open Anubis's letter in anxious curiosity. It was written in Hieratic Coptic writing on a traditional Papyrus paper, the content of the letter has some indication that this might be the last piece of Papyrus paper used by Anubis.

"Dear Angie. Before you leave Ewegypt, there is somethings I need to inform and bring up to speed on. Firstly, I am no longer the patron god of the tribe whom. you owe your rescue to. I have set them free, no longer bound by the chains of the old order, subsequently, they can now set out on their traditional migration like their fellow Beardouins. I must also inform you that I would be traveling around the world, accompanying me will be Jean Yves and Thoth to establish new chapters of the Jackal Guards. Their formations and ranks have been severely decimated in their battle against Apep and his cult, and sadly, the cult remain strong despite setbacks. Consequently, I will have to double my efforts abroad. Last but not certainly not least, I was aware of the causes behind your arrival here in Ewegypt. That is to say I know that you wish to win a bet with your superior and achieve recognition, going home empty handed would end your career and deprive me of a valuable ally. Therefore, I have decided to give you the Book of Prophecy, as gesture of goodwill and to honor our partnership. You will find it at the museum of your employer as 'Evidence' of your expedition. I look forward to continuing correspondence with you. With best regards, Anubis."

It would seem that fate was kind to Angie for this journey, one moment she failed to produce results and generate some credibility, and the next, she made a discovery that would stun the intellectual world once she return home, all's well that ends well as they always say. The first thing Angie did once she set foot back on Zootopia was to raced back to the museum with Logan and check for the Book of Prophecy, Logan could only struggle to keep up with his exuberant girlfriend, who was under a spell of vigorous pursuit of acknowledgement of promises made by her patron god. Nevertheless, he was sufficiently certain that her wishes has been granted.

As such he made a frantic apnt to keep up with her despite his robotic body, but seeing her excited only made his heart race for her as well. He called her name out to get her to slow down, but to his own surprise, and happiness she continued racing onwards.

Upon arrival at the museum, the receptionist rose from her seat and handed Angie the cardboard envelope mailed to the museum just some minutes ago by the mailman. It came attached with instruction to wait for the museum's resident archeologist come and pick it up. "I bet that the old hippo wouldn't doubt you anymore now, would he?" The receptionist giggled along with Angie. Accordingly, once Angie has presented her evidence to the curator with confident and stride, the hippo and his secretary were left jaw dropped by her improbable achievement. Consequently, he was forced to give her the proper promotion, a raise of her wages and most importantly, the recognition of her first accolade. Life was all too good for Angie at this point, but once the good times begin to roll, it simply won't last forever.

Several days later, Angie was sitting on her computer desk, working on the data of Bisontine's military expeditions during the reign of Emperor Justinian I. Around her apartment were maps, journey charts, paper clippings of major events and findings, photos and portraits of important historical figures such as the Emperor Justinian himself and his favored general Flavius Belisarius.

Ever since she stumbled onto the battle site in the Temple of Isis, she was filled with an unquenchable desire to find out for herself, just how many expeditions Justinian made during his tenor of the empire. There was nothing in the world that can distract her, until her cell phone rung with a call from her friend Charlie Frost. Conversely, she picked up the phone and answer the call. "Hello, Charlie how are things going for you?" She asked while yawning due to the exhaustion.

"Just peachy thanks. Listen Angie, you remember the Hamish Pharma Inc. awhile back?" She replied with a levelled "Yes?" to Charlie, trying to sound inquisitive to his report. "I was digging around their databanks and I found what was cooking behind the scene. Around 20 years ago, a billionaire commissioned the company to invest in researches regarding eternal life. And get this, in light the recent controversy, the billionaire who hired them just got stocks blown to pieces. And now he is investing everything he has into an expedition into the Yucatan Peninsula." Angie quickly got back on her seat once she had heard the mentioning of the Yucatan Peninsula, the home of the Mayan Empire.

"Expedition? So what does he want in there anyway?" Charlie answered her question with the uttering of a single word that's worth a billion dollars. "Take a wild guess, what every rich mammals want to posses. El Dorado." The female wolf subsequently got off of her seat in sudden shock, the mythical city of gold was real! But considering the existence of Anubis alone consequently prove that all mythologies could be real. She soon stormed off to collect Logan and gain as much information from Charlie as possible for the expedition down to the Yucatan Peninsula.

The End...for now?


End file.
